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
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