A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017
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Bulldogs finish busy week 2-0
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
A
fter a 69-60 win over Han-
ford (WA) on Tuesday to
start Hermiston’s busy
week consisting of two dou-
ble headers, head coach Casey
Arstein knew Chiawana would
have the size advantage before
entering Friday’s match up. But
a late addition to the group, Mat-
thew Kroner — the 6-foot-9 cen-
ter who was only cleared to play
earlier that day — made things
interesting for the Bulldogs.
His presence in the paint
wreaked havoc as Hermiston
was out rebounded 32-22, but the
Bulldogs stuck to their game plan
and pulled off a 76-67 win over
the Riverhawks (0-5).
“They definitely tried to stick
to their game plan and we had to
stick to ours,” Arstein said. “(The)
kids battled. Things didn’t go our
way and they still kept battling,
didn’t pout their heads, I was
proud of them.”
The boys played in the second
game of Friday’s doubleheader,
and things were interesting from
the jump.
The match up didn’t start with
the usual tipoff. Instead, junior
Ryne Andreason stepped up to
the free-throw line for two shots
as Chiawana earned a techni-
cal foul during warm ups. After
Andreason successfully made
one of his two attempts, the Bull-
dogs (3-2) got the ball back and
increased their early lead thanks
to Andreason.
The first quarter had eight lead
changes before Hermiston ended
it with a 21-18 lead. Chiawana,
with the help of Kroner and its
other top shooter, senior Austin
Penny, battled back to force two
ties during Hermiston’s 12-8 run
at the end of the first.
Junior Cesar Ortiz got the
packed house on their feet at
the buzzer as he nailed a deep
3-pointer to secure the lead.
Both teams ended the game
combined for 19 threes with
Ortiz knocking down the most for
Hermiston and Kroll coming up
big for Chiawana.
Late in the game, Kroll’s buck-
ets gave Hermiston a scare as the
Riverhawks began to chip away at
the lead the Bulldogs would end
up holding until the final buzzer.
“They’ve got some shooters,”
Arstein said of the three’s the
teams traded in the fourth quar-
ter. “We have some shooters too,
but, man, for a while there I was
like, ‘someone get a stop.’ Prefer-
ably us.”
Hermiston was able to slow
down some of Chiawana’s
Hermiston’s Ryne Andreason (1)
drives toward the basket around
Kobe Young (12), of Chiawana,
during Friday’s non-league game
in Hermiston.
Above: Hermiston’s
Jordan Ramirez (24)
drives toward the basket
around Isaiah Cantu
(0), of Chiawana, during
Friday’s non-league
game in Hermiston.
Left: Hermiston’s Andrew
Earl (2) goes up for a
shot during Friday’s
non-league game against
Chiawana in Hermiston.
STAFF PHOTOS
BY KATHY ANEY
momentum with a huge and-1
from senior Patrick Wicks.
It was the start of the fourth
quarter, and the Riverhakws
pulled within 10 points after a
22-point third quarter perfor-
mance. On the first play of the
fourth, Wicks drew the foul on a
reverse layup and converted the
free throw attempt into a three-
point play.
That gave not only Hermiston
a spark, but set a fire under Chi-
awana and the Riverhawks went
on a 10-3 run to threaten Herm-
iston’s lead more than half way
through the final quarter.
“In basketball it’s a game of
runs and I told the guys at the time
out, we just have to withstand the
run,” Arstein said.
The Bulldogs did just that and
held on for their third consecutive
victory.
Andreason and Ortiz contin-
ued to lead Hermiston in points.
After the pair scored 24 and 23
points, respectively, in Tuesday’s
win against Handford (WA), the
duo once again knocked down the
most shots Friday.
Ortiz led all scorers with 22
points on the night. Andrea-
son and Wicks both chipped in
12 each for Hermiston. For Chi-
awana, senior Taylor Kroll (17),
Kroner (17) and Penny (11) were
the top shooters.
Hermiston continued its home
stand with another game in the
Dawg House on Tuesday against
Cleveland. The results were not
available at press time.
Umatilla takes the crown in Columbia River Clash
UMATILLA — The home court
advantage served the Umatilla
Vikings well in the championship
game of the Columbia River Clash.
The host school faced Pilot Rock
to wrap up a busy three-day tour-
nament, and ran away with a 50-27
victory.
The last game of the tourna-
ment proved to be a good one as
both teams entered undefeated but
thanks to the effort from Umatil-
la’s bigs, the Vikings (5-0) were
the ones to remain perfect on the
season. Junior Uriel Garcia led the
team with 14 points and fellow
junior Christian De Loera was the
only other Viking to score in the
double digits with 10 points.
To get to the final game, Uma-
tilla had two days of competition
to get through.
First, the Vikings defeated
Union 83-35 on Thursday.
Senior Seth Cranston led the
Vikings with 20 points, junior
Sebastian Garcia had 16 points
and senior Moises Garcialazo
added 10 points. The Vikings led
the Bobcats by a 42-19 score at the
break, and then exploded for 37
points in the third quarter to cruise
to the victory.
Umatilla then advanced to the
championship game with a big
70-18 win over Echo on Friday
final day of the tournament, hold-
ing him to only nine points, all of
which were in the first half. After
the loss, the Rockets moved their
record to 5-1 and keep their place
at the top of the Class 2A Colum-
bia Basin Conference standings.
STANFIELD TIGERS
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Stanfield head coach Devin Bailey draws up a play during a time out
during the Tigers’ 61-58 win against Arlington at the Columbia River Clash
on Thursday in Umatilla.
night.
Senior Kaden Webb scored 12
points with six assists and Crans-
ton had 12 points, five steals and
four rebounds to lead the Vikings.
PILOT ROCK ROCKETS
To open the tournament senior
Bryson Pierce was the start of the
show, as he scored 22 points in the
56-34 over Riverside.
After Pierce, seniors Chris
Weinke scored 11 points for the
Rockets and Riley Lankford had
10, while sophomore Levi Thieme
contributed nine.
On Friday, Piece again led Pilot
Rock in a 66-37 win over Stan-
field to advance to the champion-
ship game. Pierce scored a game-
high 23 points.
Sophomore Bodie Key added
19 points for the Rockets and
Weinke chipped in 14.
Umatilla was able to shut
Pierce and company down in the
Before the loss to Pilot Rock,
Stanfield fared well in the Clash.
The Tigers first knocked off
Arlington with 61-58 victory over
the Honkers.
But they couldn’t keep up that
momentum against league-oppo-
nent, Pilot Rock, and fell 66-37.
Eduardo Nunez led the Tigers with
10 points and Elias Esquivel and
Brody Woods both finished with
nine.
Stanfield managed to turn
things around Saturday and end
the tournament with a 56-52 win
over Echo, and now sit 3-5.
RIVERSIDE PIRATES
The Riverside Pirates opened
the three-day tournament with
a forgettable game Thursday, a
56-34 loss to Pilot Rock.
Sophomore Cristian Rea led
the Pirates (1-3) with 10 points
and senior Felix Aparicio chipped
in seven.
The Pirates rebounded well and
the squad picked up their second
win of the season by putting away
the Arlington Honkers on Friday
night.
Junior Mario Madrigal led the
Pirates (2-3) with 12 points and
senior Mason Hegar notched 11
points. Their momentum contin-
ued into the final day of play.
Despite the low scoring affair
for the Pirates to wrap up the
Clash, Riverside held on to its lead
narrowly defeating Union 33-32.
Union battled back in the sec-
ond half but after two missed
free throws as time expired in the
fourth quarter, the Bobcats were
unable to complete the comeback.
Riverside improved to 3-3 on
the season behind a team-high
eight points from Madrigal and
Aparicio.
ECHO COUGARS
At the Clash, Echo notched its
first win of the season over Faith
Bible on Thursday.
But fell back to its losing
ways against the host school, and
dropped Friday’s game 70-18.
Morgan Marcum led the Cougars
(1-3) with five points.
Echo wasn’t able to bounce
back from that loss as the Cougars
dropped their final game 56-52 to
Stanfield on Saturday.