A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2017
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Villareal, Gutierrez take podium at Tri-State
HERMISTON HERALD
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho —
The Hermiston varsity wrestling
squad crossed the state border for
a weekend at the Tri-State Tourna-
ment in Idaho, and fared well on the
first day of competition in Coeur
D’Alene, Idaho.
Aiden Villareal (145 pounds) and
Joey Gutierrez (195 pounds) both
advanced to the semifinals in their
respective weight classes on Friday.
Gutierrez won two matches by deci-
sion and one by fall, and Villareal
won two by decision, one by major
decision and one by fall. Several
Bulldogs remain alive in the conso-
lation bracket as well.
The Bulldogs finished the high-
ly-competitive tournament Satur-
day, ending up 21st of 30 teams with
78 points.
Hermiston had two wrestlers
earn spots on the medal stand. Guti-
errez finished in second place at 195
pounds after losing by fall to Uni-
versity (WA) wrestler Hunter Gre-
gerson. Aidan Villareal finished in
sixth place at 145 pounds.
MAC-HI CHRISTMAS — Irri-
gon finished fourth as a team at the
Mac-Hi Christmas Tournament with
97.5 points with six placers, includ-
ing Alex Mirand (170) and Tucker
McAllister (220) in first place and
Josue Aguilera (170) and Kaleb
Kendrick (285) in second place.
Riverside finished in sixth with
80 points and five placers, led by
Andrew Barker (132) in first place,
Abraham Silva (120) in second
place, and Fernando Ortega (113)
and Ethan Snyder (145) in third
place.
Hermiston JV was 10th with 56.5
points, led by Silas Smith (145) in
second place and Garrett Hills (285)
in third place.
WILEY DOBBS INVITA-
TIONAL — At Twin Falls, Idaho,
the Echo Cougars wrapped up Day
1 of the Wiley Dobbs Invitational on
Friday night with only one wrestler
left in contention for a title.
Kenny Bevan won three matches
Knights take first loss, bounce back
on Friday, all by fall to reach the
semifinals at 195 pounds. His first
two victories both came within the
first 30 seconds of the match, and
his quarterfinal win came at the 2:23
mark. He finished second in the
tourney.
Mychael Pointer was ousted from
contention in the 145-pound quar-
terfinals by a 7-4 decision and then
lost in the consolation round by fall.
Hayden Hilliard was ousted in the
consolation round at 138 pounds, as
well.
Vikings
conquer
Mustangs
HERMISTON HERALD
STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY
Taylor Davis (10), of Irrigon, battles for a rebound with two La Grande players during
Saturday’s non-conference game in Hermiston.
HERMISTON HERALD
T
he Irrigon Knights girls basket-
ball team saw its perfect start to the
season snapped on Saturday, but
rebounded Monday with a win over
Liberty Christian.
The Knights had earned hard fought
wins to get to 7-0. But the Class 4A La
Grande Tigers got the best of them in the
Hermiston High School gym on Saturday.
The 44-39 defeat at the hands of the
Tigers was a good learning experience for
Irrigon.
“One thing that we learned is we can’t
make the little mistakes that we made
tonight,” head coach Mike Royer said.
“We turned the ball over a little bit too
much and we didn’t finish shots in the
fourth quarter. We really had trouble scor-
ing in the fourth quarter and it was tough
for us, too.”
Senior Jada Burns — who was the
team’s top scorer with 10 points — wasn’t
at 100 percent, Royer added.
The Knights then looked to fellow
senior Alyia Munoz to help with the load.
Munoz chipped in seven points, the team’s
second-best performer.
Irrigon trailed La Grande only by a few
points at the end of each quarter, but the
sluggish fourth quarter where the Knights
only scored four points hurt their chances
at a comeback.
Irrigon bounced back with a big win on
Monday as Kylie Wyant scored 12 points
and Olivia Luna finished with 10 as the
Knights thumped the Patriots 45-28.
BOYS: On Monday, Irrigon continued
its winning ways as Johnny Phillips scored
a season-best 33 points to help the Knights
remain unbeaten on the season with a win
over Liberty Christian.
“We focused on getting the ball inside
Kylie Wyant, of Irrigon, goes up for a
shot over two La Grande players during
Saturday’s non-league game in Hermiston.
to him, that’s about all that was working
tonight,” head coach Davy Salas said.
Behind Phillips, Eric Carrillo scored 12
points for the Knights (8-0) while Adrian
Roa had nine and Keith Fleming had eight.
Irrigon continued play on the road
Tuesday, as the Knights visited Mac-Hi.
Game results were not available by press
time.
Tigers coming off tourney with mixed outcomes
HERMISTON HERALD
Things finally clicked for Stan-
field as the Tigers hosted the Elgin
Huskies on Friday. After com-
ing off two close wins, the Tigers
were finally able to pull ahead of
their competition and defeat Elgin
54-31.
“We finally put together a com-
plete game,” head coach Devin
Bailey said. “It was amazing.”
Senior Brody Woods led the
Tigers with 19 points. For the Hus-
kies, senior Brandon Howes and
junior Brandon Caldwell were
the top scorers after finishing with
eight points apiece.
However, the victory was short-
lived as Stanfield dropped its next
game against Riverside on Sat-
urday. The 52-30 loss moved the
Tigers to 5-6 on the season.
Stanfield has begun a three-
game road stint which began Tues-
day against Imbler. Results of this
game were not available at press
time.
The girls also had to take on
Riverside during Day 2 of the
Stanfield Tournament but not
before they faced another tough
opponent.
To open the tournament, the
Tigers got off to a good start
against the visiting Elgin Huskies.
The teams were neck-and-neck
after the first quarter with Elgin
holding a narrow one-point lead,
15-14. But a slow second quar-
ter stopped both teams’ momen-
tum and after coming out of the
half, the Tigers lost their chance at
opening the weekend with a win.
Elgin claimed a 49-40 victory
after holding Stanfield to a score-
less third quarter.
The Tigers needed to rally in
the fourth quarter, and scored 21
points in an effort to come back
but the final buzzer sounded before
Stanfield could come close to the
Huskies.
Sophomore Kendra Hart led the
Tigers with 28 points. For Elgin,
senior Hannah McClure was its top
scorer with 13 points.
Riverside earned a 37-22 vic-
tory over Stanfield on Saturday
behind three double-digit quarters.
The Tigers (0-10) were again
led by Hart, who finished with 12
points. For the Pirates, it was senior
Skylar Wightman who did the bulk
of the scoring with 12 points of her
own. Fellow senior Abby Hernan-
dez also pitched in 10 points for
Riverside.
The girls squad will join the
boys team on the road, playing
each of the three games one and
half hours before the boys tipoff.
On Saturday, the Umatilla
Vikings’ hot start to the season
hit a bump in the road with its
first loss.
During the final day of the
Amity Warrior Classic, it was the
host team that came away with the
win when Amity topped Umatilla
66-52 behind two 14-point per-
formances from seniors Jaycen
Nelson and Zac Blake.
The Vikings got off to a slow
and never recovered. For Uma-
tilla, senior Trent Durfey led
the team that day with 18 points
and 11 rebounds. However, the
Vikings were back to their win-
ning ways on Monday evening,
thumping the Heppner Mus-
tangs 67-43 in Heppner.
For the Vikings (7-1), it was
Kaden Webb who led the squad
in Monday’s 67-43 win. Webb
scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shoot-
ing and dished out six assists.
Sebastian Garcia also netted 16
points on 6-of-9 shooting. The
duo combined to hit all eight of
Umatilla’s made 3-pointers in the
game. Seth Cranston also reached
double digits with 10 points.
Umatilla shot 45 percent
from the floor in the game, while
its defense held Heppner to just
22 percent shooting and forced
17 turnovers.
Tyler Carter led the Mustangs
with 14 points, Justin McAninch
added 10 points and Wyatt Stea-
gall finished with seven points.
For the girls team, the
Vikings were coming off a win
Saturday. The 43-36 victory
over Scio in the Amity Warrior
Classic boosted Umatilla’s spir-
its after it had splits its last four
games.
But that would come to a halt
at Heppner on Monday when
the Mustangs defended their
home court with a big win over
the Vikings.
Jacee Currin led the Mus-
tangs with a game-high 19
points on 8-of-14 shooting, add-
ing four rebounds and three
assists. Sydney Wilson added 11
points and both Morgan Correa
and Madison Combe pitched in
six points for Heppner.
Devina Monreal led the
Vikings (3-5) with seven points on
2-of-3 shooting and 3-of-5 from
the free throw line, while Lauryn
Journot, Nancy Ortiz and Katelyn
Lorence each had six points for
the Vikings. Umatilla shot a solid
39 percent for the game, but was
hurt by 29 turnovers, 20 of which
came in the first half.
Both Heppner and Umatilla
played before the boys at Echo
and at home versus Pilot Rock,
respectively, on Tuesday. The
final scores were unavailable at
press time.
SCHEDULE
BOYS BASKETBALL
Thursday
• Mac-Hi at Riverside,
5:30 p.m.
• Stanfield at Irrigon,
7:30 p.m.
• Horizon Christian at
Echo, 5:30 p.m.
Friday
• Hermiston at Dallas,
7 p.m.
• Umatilla at Nixyaawii,
5:30 p.m.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Thursday
• McLoughlin at
Riverside, 4 p.m.
• Stanfield at Irrigon,
6 p.m.
Friday
• Hermiston at West
Valley (WA), 5:45 p.m.
• Umatilla at Nixyaawii,
6 p.m.
WRESTLING
Thursday: Echo at Tim
Fine Memorial Tourna-
ment (at Oakridge HS)
Friday: Hermiston
at Best of The West
(Pasco, WA)
Saturday: Hermiston
at Best of the West
(Pasco, WA)