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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 SPORTS TIGERS: BULLDOGS: keeping the pressure tight,” said senior Thyler Monkus. “This team (Life Christian) plays slow, so we wanted to play our tempo game, and that’s what we did all game.” Monkus came up with his fourth steal of the game with 1:03 left when he ran down Zeke Quinlan at mid- court. He also had a block and four assists. “We just had to hustle after everything,” he said. “No matter if we’re down by a lot, up by a lot, we just have to give 100 percent, and it can change the mo- mentum pretty fast. That’s what we’ve worked on all year.” Brody Woods came off the bench to score 13 points with nine rebounds, and two blocks for Stanfield. Ryan Bailey added 10 points, and Garcia and Tony Flores made key contributions in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers gain control. Garcia got the quarter started with a shot in the lane to take a 32-30 lead, but Quinlan scored on a putback to tie it back up. He finished with a team-high 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Lions, and Bo Quin- lan added 11 points. Stanfield was slapped with its eighth foul of the half with 6:31 to play, and Bo Quinlan hit both of his bonus shots for a 34-32 lead, but it was short-lived as Monkus found Flores with a cross-court pass for a wide open three-pointer in front of the Stanfield bench for a 35-34 edge. Zac Ross answered with a reverse layup at the other end, but then Grogan hit a jumper in the wing for the game’s final lead change at 37-36 with 5:33 left. After a missed bonus free throw by the Lions, the Tigers again made the extra pass to find the open shooter and Grogan knocked down the triple from the corner for a 40-36 lead. “We saw them play yester- day, we saw the open spots,” Grogan said of the Lions’ 3-2 zone. “Our coaches spent hours working on the game plan and we knew exactly what we were going to do be- fore the game.” It was back to the line for the Lions on their next pos- session, and Zeke Quinlan was 1-of-2, which Grogan answered with another three. Then Monkus stole the ball for a fast-break layup to give them their largest lead to that point at 47-39 with 3:12 to play. The teams traded missed jumpers, and then Garcia forced the charge with 2:18 left. After two misses and two offensive boards, Bailey drove to the hoop for two to make it 49-39. Bo Quinlan hit two at the line to make it 49-41 with 1:30 left, but the Lions missed their next three shots as Woods, Bailey and Grogan hit free throws to close out the win. Stanfield finished 21-for- 58 (36.2 percent) from the field and Life Christian was 15-for-45 (33.3 percent). minutes to break the scoreless tie, but Sandy went 3:31 without even attempting a shot. By then junior post Maddy Juul had given Hermiston (14-10) a 4-0 lead, and the Bulldogs opened the game on a 9-0 run. Herm- iston led by double-digits much of the game, but an eight-point spurt from the Pioneers trimmed the lead to seven to start the third quarter. But Hermiston re- sponded with another nine- point run and that was the last trouble they would see out of the Pioneers. The Bulldogs shot 15- for-32 (46.9 percent) from the field, but a whopping 72.2 percent (13-18) from inside the three-point arc for the No. 2 team out of the Columbia River Con- ference. “We talked about them jumping on top early, and putting (Sandy) away ear- ly, and I thought they did a good job of that,” Rodri- guez said. “We had never seen them play zone, either, and they tried to slow us down a little bit there. But I thought Maddy (Juul) and Kynzee (Padilla) did a good job kind of establish- ing aggressiveness.” Juul finished with a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds, and she and Padilla each had five points in the first quarter as Herm- iston broke down the San- dy zone with lots of quick, short passes. Padilla fin- ished with nine points and nine rebounds, and Jazyln Romero scored all of her 11 points in the second half. Rileigh Andreason added eight points, and Hayden Meyers had three assists and a pair of steals. Sandy got its first point of the game when Marley Salveter hit a free throw with 2:07 left in the first quarter, and no Pioneer finished with more than four points. Sandy shot 11-for-47 (23.4 percent) from the field. Hermiston took its first double-digit lead when se- nior guard Shaelynn Gil- bert stepped inside the arc to drain a long jumper that made it 15-5 with 5:13 to play in the second quarter, and Andreason had baskets to answer Sandy later in the half and make sure the lead didn’t drop below 12. Hermiston took a 24-9 lead into the locker room at halftime, and although the Pioneers hadn’t shown much yet, Rodriguez warned the Bulldogs to continued from Page A10 ——— LC 8 7 15 11 — 41 SHS 7 11 12 26 — 56 LIFE CHRISTIAN — Z. Quinlan 15, B. Quinlan 11, Z. Ross 6, J. Wooten 5, T. Vasily- ev 4, J. Woods, B. Lambert, Y. Zhou. STANFIELD — D. Grogan 20, B. Woods 13, T. Flores 5, T. Monkus 4, J. Garcia 4, E. Angel, J. Galarza, D. Allen, E. Esquivel, A. Isaac Gomez, N. Sanchez. 3-pointers — LC 1; SHS 4. Free throws — LC 10-14; SHS 10-18. Fouls — LC 19; SHS 15. Fouled out — Z. Ross (LC). continued from Page STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Stanfield’s Jose Galarza goes up for a rebound contested by Santiam’s Austin Fawcett and Jonah Downey in the Tigers’ 57-54 loss to the Wolverines in the class 2A basketball state championship game Saturday in Pendleton. with a 59-48 victory. “They (Oakridge) want- ed to play our game which was kind of surprising,” Stanfield junior Brody Woods said afterwards. “On film, they liked to slow the game down but they tried to keep up with us and I think we tired them out.” The No. 2 seed Tigers (21-1) started the game on fire, hitting on three of their first five shots and held a 10-2 advantage over the No. 7 seed Warriors (20- 7). But the Warriors gave the Tigers a few good runs throughout the half and trailed just 31-27 at the halftime break. Stanfield got a little bogged down in the latter part of the first half, as its full-court pressure defense was a little slower and not able to keep Oakridge play- ers in front, leading to some easy Warrior baskets. Senior guard Ryan Bailey said that there was no panic at the break, though they knew what needed to be fixed. “We’re always kind of a second half team,” Bailey said. “But we just kind of talked about what we need- ed to do, get on the big guys because they were getting a lot of boards and second chance points.” The third quarter was a turning point for the Tigers, as their defensive intensity picked up and their offen- sive efficiency followed behind. Stanfield went on a 10-0 run to start the quarter to open a 41-27 lead at the 3:24 mark, hitting four of its first eight shots. Oakridge did not score its first point in the quar- ter until the 3:09 mark, when Mathias Nchekwube swished a short jump- er to cut the score to 41- 29. Stanfield’s defense held Oakridge to just 2-11 shooting in the quarter and forced six turnovers alone. Oakridge’s only oth- er field goal in the quarter came on a desperation 3 just inside the half-court line by Joel Snyder to beat the third quarter buzzer, leaving Stanfield in a 49-33 lead after three. “I think our defense re- ally picked up in the second half,” Woods said. “We got a few turnovers and turned them into points, and I think that was a turning point for us to be able to keep the lead.” The Warriors did give the Tigers another run ear- ly in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to nine points twice at 53-44 with 3:41 left to play, but soon after it was evident that fatigue had set in. Oakridge had two players at 30-plus minutes, while Stanfield had just one player (Grogan) that played more than 24 minutes. “That’s the biggest fac- tor for us moving forward,” senior Jose Garcia said of Stanfield’s endurance. “Earlier this year Eno- el (Angel) said we had to ‘Trust the Process’ and this is the process right here and it’s going good for us.” Dylan Grogan led the Ti- gers in scoring with a game- high 20 points with six re- bounds and six steals, while Garcia followed up with 13 points and Ryan Bailey had 12. Woods was also a key contributor for Stanfield, with eight points, three boards and three blocks. “Dylan (Grogan) some- times packs a lot of the load but it’s nice to take it off of him,” Bailey said. “We have a team full of guys that can take over the game.” Snyder was the War- riors’ leading scorer with 22 points, while Jonathan Ncheckwube followed with 13 to go with 12 rebounds and five blocks. Oakridge finished the game with 23 turnovers, and shot 35 per- cent (20-57) from the floor. Stanfield also reveled in the atmosphere at Pendleton High School on Thursday, as the 25 minute driving dis- tance from Stanfield meant an overwhelming amount of Tiger fans. On top of that, Stanfield students filled up an entire section of bleachers, cheering nonstop throughout the game and giving the Tigers a boost. “We love having that stu- dent section,” Bailey said. “They’ve been amazing all year and it’s really nice to have, especially now.” _——— OHS 12 15 6 15 — 48 SHS 18 13 18 10 — 59 OAKRIDGE — J. Snyder 22, J. Nche- kwube 13, D. Kirkhart 9, M. Nchekwube 2, P. White 2, C. Gregor, M. Powell. STANFIELD — D. Grogan 20, J. Garcia 13, R. Bailey 12, B. Woods 8, T. Flores 3, T. Monkus 2, E. Angel 1, J. Galarza, D. Allan, E. Esquivel, A. Gomez, N. Sanchez. 3-pointers — OHS 3, SHS 4. Free throws — OHS 5-8, SHS 13-20. Fouls — OHS 19, SHS 13. be ready for a second-half push. It started right away as Sandy’s Leah Barnett hit a three-pointer 22 seconds in. The Bulldogs missed three shots on the oth- er end, then Taya Vance scored a putback and Mattie Burns nailed a wide open three-pointer in the corner to cut Hermiston’s lead to 24-17 after two minutes. Rodriguez called a time- out there, and the Bulldogs were able to regroup and come out with Andreason hitting a short jumper in the lane to stop Sandy’s run. Padilla scored a pair of free throws to make it 28-17, and Romero then got into the ac- tion with three the hard way to make it 31-17 with 4:32 left in the third. That was the closest Sandy would get the rest of the way. “One of the things we talk about all the time is that those first five minutes of the third quarter are big. They’re game changers,” Rodriguez said. “You can either pull away and get up big, win big, or they come back. And (Sandy) came out with energy, and I just told the girls in the locker room I was really proud of the fact that they took basi- cally a blow to the stomach and they responded pretty quickly with some baskets.” The Bulldogs did have a scary moment late in the game when Gilbert went down with an ankle injury and needed to be helped from the court. ——— SHS 3 6 14 6 — 29 HHS 11 13 14 15 — 53 SANDY — T. Dwyre 4, T. Vance 4, M. Wells 4, H. McKinney 4, L. Barnett 3, M. Burns 3, M. Salveter 3, C. Brown 2, I. Cabrera 2, I. Kansala, E. Hutchins, A. Thomas. HERMISTON — M. Juul 15, J. Romero 11, K. Padilla 9, R. Andreason 8, S. Gilbert 4, H. Meyers 2, H. Thompson 2, S. Stefani 2, M. Wilson, R. Meyers, A. Green. 3-pointers — SHS 2; HHS 2. Free throws — SHS 5-9; HHS 21-29. Fouls — SHS 21; HHS 9. Fouled out — M. Wells, H. McKinney (SHS). L i t t le D a r l i n gs ! This special section will be fi lled with photos of and messages for adorable little darlings from Umatilla County. Families will want to keep this special keepsake for their child and family for years to come. PUBLISHES: April 19, 2017 DEADLINES: April 6, 2017 Quarterfinals With the Stanfield Ti- gers’ lightning quick tem- po on the basketball court, their games can sometimes resemble track meets. But that up-tempo pace, mixed with the depth and constant rotations from the bench used by Stanfield’s coach Jason Sperr, has played into many victories for the Tigers this season, of- tentimes wearing down op- ponents in the second halves while the Tigers keep chug- ging towards the finish line. The pace was a big fac- tor again for the Tigers on Thursday night, as they wore down the Oakridge Warriors in a Class 2A quarterfinal meeting and ended the night STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Rileigh Andreason puts up a shot between Sandy’s Leah Barnett (43) and Makenna Wells in the Bulldogs’ 53-29 win against the Pioneers on Wednesday in Hermiston. Olivia, t. I loved you from the very star heart. my ed rac emb , You stole my breath un. beg just has er Our life togeth . You’re part of me, my little one Love, Mom Send in, or drop by, a full color high resolution photo, your child’s name and a message to your child today! Little Darlings 211 SE Byers, Pendleton, OR 97801 333 E. Main, Hermiston, OR 97838 or email classifi eds@eastoregonian.com Your Name: Phone Number: Child’s Name: Message: www.eastoregonian.com www.hermistonherald.com
