A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017
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Cougars split
record in Fossil
HERMISTON HERALD
Nothing was going to
stop Echo after the Cou-
gars took an early lead
against Condon/Wheeler
on Saturday to close out
the Paul Humphrey’s Tip-
Off Tournament in Fos-
sil. The 47-33 win over the
Knights was thanks in part
to a 15-point performance
from Rachel McCarty.
Marti Huff also had a big
game for Echo and notched
13 rebounds and had a
major presence in the paint
against Condon/Wheeler.
The win followed a
54-26 loss to Pilot Rock at
the tournament on Friday,
the first game of the season
for the team.
Huff scored 13 points to
lead the Cougars (0-1) and
freshman Brenna McPher-
son added seven in her var-
sity debut.
Kayla Deist scored 17
points and Kaitlyn Evans
scored 10 to lead the
Rockets.
“It felt pretty good,”
Pilot Rock coach Dan Deist
said. “It took us a few min-
utes to get going but once
we did we played well.”
Behind
Deist
and
Evans, Sara Weinke scored
nine points for the Rockets
(1-0), while Breann Balez-
tina and Lillie Brewer each
scored six.
BOYS:
Condon/
Wheeler continued its
dominance at the Paul
Humphrey’s Tip-Off Tour-
nament on Saturday, earn-
ing its second victory of
the weekend with a 70-50
win over Echo.
The Knights got off to a
hot start in the first quarter
and continued to score in
double digits through the
next three quarters. Trey
Homer led all scorers with
25 points. For the Cougars,
Morgan Marcum finished
with a team-high 19 points.
Echo came out much better
in the second half, but the
Cougars efforts fell short.
The
Cougars
also
dropped Friday’s game to
Pilot Rock 55-33.
Bryson Pierce exploded
for 30 points for the Rock-
ets (1-0) while Levi
Thieme had eight and
Logan Weinke had six.
Devan Craig led the Cou-
gars (0-1) with 10 points
and Morgan Marcum had
eight.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s Jazlyn Romero attempts a one-handed put back as teammate Sydney Stefani looks on in the Bulldogs’ 55-46 loss
to Wilsonville on Friday in Hermiston.
Bulldogs drop home opener
Hermiston’s first
game in the Dawg
House showed
promise despite
outcome
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
HERMISTON — After
the Hermiston girls basket-
ball team’s 40-29 loss to
open the season Wednesday,
Nov. 29, they asked head
coach Juan Rodriguez for a
tough practice the following
day.
The Bulldogs got just that
and it showed on the court
in their home opener on Fri-
day. Despite the 55-46 loss at
the hands of Wilsonville at
the Dawg House, Hermiston
efforts multiplied.
“This game is 10 times
better than the one we played
on Wednesday,” Rodriguez
said. “We got out on the floor
and ran, we played great
defense. Wilsonville is a
good team and they hit good
shots and they put us in bad
situations.”
The Bulldogs (0-2) didn’t
have to climb their way back
up the scoreboard for the
entire 32 minutes.
Hermiston opened the
game with a 15-4 lead after
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s Maddy Juul
shoots the ball guarded by
Wilsonville’s Jessica Classen
in the Bulldogs’ 55-46 loss
to the Wildcats on Friday in
Hermiston.
the first quarter. The Bull-
dogs held the Wildcats (1-0)
scoreless until they went to
the free-throw line three min-
utes into the game. It was at
the charity stripe that Wilson-
ville proved most effective,
making 21-of-29 attempts
when it was all said and done.
The Bulldogs managed
to hold on to their lead until
the Wildcats became a threat
halfway through the sec-
ond quarter. A strong defen-
sive effort from Hermiston
kept Wilsonville’s offense at
bay until some sloppy mis-
takes gave the Wildcats their
chance to top the scoreboard.
A 14-4 run before half-
time put Wilsonville up
25-23 after two quarters of
play. The Wildcats used that
momentum as they entered
the third quarter and were
up by as much as 10 points
before Hermiston sopho-
more Jazlyn Romero hit a
3-pointer at the buzzer to end
the third quarter and cut the
Bulldogs’ deficit to 40-33.
Again Romero proved to
be an asset following up her
team-leading 12-point per-
formance Wednesday with
nine points on Friday. This
time around it was junior Jor-
dan Thomas who had a team-
high 12 points, and senior
Maddy Juul followed with
10 points.
“I’m pretty blessed, and I
have told the girls this, that
we have the team makeup
to make a pretty deep run,”
Rodriguez said.
The talented core group
of girls — and the other two
starters, juniors Madison
Wilson and Sydney Stefani
— were pushing the pace of
the game and playing aggres-
sive on both sides of the
court. But with Juul nursing
a knee injury and Thomas’
presence in the paint putting
her in foul trouble, Hermis-
ton looked to its young bench
to help with the load. Unfor-
tunately, it was too heavy.
“I think what hurt us is
when we brought off girls
off the bench, they have
low confidence right now,”
Rodriguez said. “So what we
just talked about was hav-
ing that confidence. They are
on the team for a reason and
when they come in they have
to provide, they have to be a
positive for us and I think for
the most part, most of those
girls understand that.”
The team’s youth showed
when Thomas was subbed
out after tallying her fourth
foul shortly after the third
quarter started. The 6-foot
3-inch forward shut Wilson-
ville down in the low post,
and without Thomas’ pres-
ence the Wildcats, at times,
easily made their way to the
basket.
But even with another
quick turnaround tomor-
row, Rodriguez is confident
the girls will continue to
improve.
“I’m just happy that we
competed and we played
hard and that’s kind of what
I want,” he said. “Our philos-
phy is up-tempo, we’re going
to press and we’re going to
get in the passing lane. While
the losing is not ideal, I was
actually kind of happy with
the way they played.”
The Hermiston Holiday
Tournament continues with
the Bulldogs facing the Lew-
iston Bengals. The school
out of Idaho has already
had a few games under its
belt, as its season started
mid-November.
Irrigon off to hot start with Ione Bonanza wins
HERMISTON HERALD
The Irrigon girls bas-
ketball team went to the
fourth quarter trailing the
Weston-McEwen
Tiger-
Scots 46-34 and knew they
needed to change things up
to get a win.
The Knights pulled out a
full-court pressure defense
which threw the TigerScots
off instantly and swung
the game in the Knights’
favor as Irrigon outscored
Weston-McEwen 20-6 in
the final frame to steal a
54-52 victory at the Ione
Basketball Bonanza on
Friday.
“We
really
strug-
gled against their press,”
Weston-McEwen
coach
Mike Giusti said. “They
(Irrigon) sped us up and
we tried to hurry and we
weren’t sure of where to
go because we haven’t had
much time to work on that
yet.”
Jada Burns scored 17 to
lead the Knights (3-0) and
following her were Tay-
lor Davis with 10 and Alyia
Munoz with eight. For the
TigerScots Katie Vescio led
with 17 points and Chelsea
Quaempts had 14.
The Knights followed
up the win Saturday at the
Bonanza with a 49-36 over
Enterprise.
BOYS: Keith Flem-
ing scored 12 points and
the trio of Johnny Phillips,
Eric Carillo and Adrian
Roa each had 10 to lead
the Irrigon Knights past
the Weston-McEwen Tiger-
Scots 66-43 on Friday
night at the Ione Basketball
Bonanza.
Weston-McEwen (0-2)
had just four players reach
the score column, though
senior Brett Speed went off
for 32 points in the loss.
“We played a good game
... and our scoring was
pretty balanced tonight,”
Irrigon coach Davie Salas
said. “Speed had a good
game for them, we had a
tough time staying in front
of him but we adjusted.”
Irrigon stayed unde-
feated Saturday with a
59-49 win over Enterprise.
Dawgs return home after
finishing 1-2 in Wilsonville
HERMISTON HERALD
Before the Hermis-
ton boys basketball team
returns to the Dawg House
for
three
consecutive
home games, the Bulldogs
opened their season in Wil-
sonville at the Holiday Inn
WIT Tournament.
Hermiston finished 1-2
after three days of play
beginning Friday and wrap-
ping up Sunday. The Bull-
dogs’ most successful out-
ing was in the final day of
competition against Eagle
Point. They pulled away
with a 70-52 win thanks to
a 24-point performance in
the third quarter where five
Dawgs scored two or more
points.
Before
Hermiston
picked up its first win of
the season, it had to endure
some tough losses. The first
was a 74-64 defeat at the
hands of Mountain View
to open the tournament Fri-
day. Hermiston again fell
Saturday, this time 59-42
against Springfield.
The Bulldogs are play-
ing without one of their
starts and key play mak-
ers, junior Andrew James
— who has recovered from
a back injury he suffered
during the football team’s
championship game a week
ago.
Despite coming out
of the tournament with
only one win, there were
some promising moments
for Hermiston. The Bull-
dogs hit 13 3-pointers
against Mountain View, and
notched 15 more over the
next two days of play.
Cesar Ortiz emerged as
an early points leader for
Hermiston with 24 points
and five made 3-point-
ers against the Cougars.
Ryan Andreason hit four
3-pointers and finished
with 21 points to open the
tournament.
In both losses the Bull-
dogs got off to a good start,
but couldn’t sustain their
aggressive level of play
throughout the entire 38
minutes.
Jordan Ramirez, one of
the only returning starters,
led the Bulldogs through
the rest of the tournament.
He scored a team-high 12
points against Springfield
on Saturday and finished
second to Andreason with
another 12 points Sunday.
Vikings have opposite endings
to a busy weekend
HERMISTON HERALD
Both Umatilla boys
and girls basketball teams
traveled to Vernonia to
compete in the Verno-
nia Tournament. The sea-
son-opening
weekend
proved successful for the
boys team, which finished
2-0, while the girls suf-
fered back-to-back loses.
The boys were led
by Sebastian Garcia and
Kaden Webb, who added
19 points and 10 points,
respectively, in Umatilla’s
last day of play against
Vernonia. The 57-46 win
capped off a very success-
ful weekend. The Vikings
opened up the tournament
with a 50-30 win Friday
against Riverdale.
The girls, on the other
hand, lost to both River-
dale (38-29) and Vernonia
(37-20).
UPCOMING: Both teams will have
home-court advantage this week as
Umatilla will host the Columbia River
Clash beginning Thursday. The boys will
open the tournament against Union at
7 p.m. Thursday and the girls will face
Union at 5:30 p.m.