A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2018 Herald Sports DOUBLEHEADER SPLIT Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Hermiston gave up 26 points in fourth quarter to continue skid Dawgs end road trip with third loss, return to home Friday HERMISTON HERALD STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS Umatilla’s Trent Durfey fights for the ball with Stanfield’s Eduardo Nunez and Mario Sanchez (20) in the Vikings’ 80-22 win against the Tigers on Thursday in Umatilla. Umatilla will get some much-needed rest before hosting Irrigon on Jan. 12 to open Eastern Oregon League play. By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ STAFF WRITER U MATILLA — The Umatilla boys basketball team had spent almost its entire winter break on the road. From facing the Nixyaawii Eagles on their home court to playing in the Salem Academy Christian Holi- day Tournament, it was the team’s lon- gest away stretch of the season. And as of Tuesday, the joyful return was put on hold after Umatilla dropped its third game of the season. The Vikings, however, quickly recov- ered and in front of a home crowd dished the visiting Stanfield Tigers an 80-22 beating on Thursday. “I’m glad we were able to end our long, multiple games, tournaments, New Year’s, Christmas vacation right now,” head coach Scott Bow said after the game. “Sickness has hit our team, we’ve had multiple kids not playing or dehy- drated all game because of it, so I’m glad we ended where we did today.” The fatigue of travel and illness that comes with the new season didn’t show on the court. Umatilla was able to get out to an early 18-4 lead after the first quarter, and stay in control for the rest of the game. The Vikings (12-3) had standout per- formances from a number of player and had 12 of their 13-player roster put points on the board. Junior Uriel Garcia led the team with a game-high 18 points followed by senior Kaden Webb, who dished out 16 points of his own, and junior Sebastian Garcia, who knocked down 12. One of Bow’s goals for the team was to step up its defensive output. During Umatilla’s road trip the most points it had given up was 61 points — the sec- ond most points scored on the Vikings this season. “We’ve held teams, even our losses, way below their averages and that was our goal tonight to hold them below their average,” he said. “We met our goal.” Girls basketball Stanfield’s Kendra Hart draws contact from Umatilla’s Charlene Alvarez in the Tigers’ 33-32 win against the Vikings on Thursday in Umatilla. The Tigers (6-8) were averaging 48.7 points per game coming into Thursday’s game, and finished well below barely reaching the 20-point mark. “Defense has kind of been our MO,” Bow said. “Our kids have bought into the defense very, very well and that’s the one thing every night we’ve relied on.” Umatilla’s defense completely shut down Stanfield. The Tigers were kept in the single digits every quarter, and no player was able to score more than eight points — junior Fernando Ramirez led the team with eight points. And with good defense comes good offense. Uriel Garcia had a team-high of four 3-pointers, while Webb and Sebas- tian Garcia each had two apiece. Coming off of the back-to-back losses with a nearly 40-point victory is a good momentum booster, but Bow and his squad know none of that matters when league play starts next week. “Records out the window at this point for us,” he said. “0-0 everyone is fresh.” Entering Thursday’s doubleheader against Umatilla, Stanfield girls basket- ball head coach, Daniel Sharp, told his team at the half that if they committed over 30 turnovers they would lose the game. He turned out to be wrong, because the tough Tiger squad outlasted the Vikings to win only their second game of the year. The 33-32 victory came down to the wire, and despite the 34 total turn- overs committed by Stanfield, the Tigers (2-11) were able to hold on for the win. “I thought we played harder than we have been,” Sharp said. “We played Umatilla earlier in the year so it’s always fun to get a second game and see if we can get better, and that was the goal: to get better.” In the two teams’ first meeting back on Dec. 9, it was the Vikings who came away with the narrow victory. The 49-41 loss was Stanfield’s seventh in a row at that point in the season, but Sharp saw some improvement on the court and notable performances from a few Tigers. “Kendra (Hart) played tough,” Sharp said. “She had four fouls in the whole fourth quarter but said, ‘I’ll go play,’ and she did — and she didn’t foul, she played smart. She’s a super athlete. “I thought that Amanda (Carrillo) finally started to attack,” he added. “We lacked that ability to attack the basket and she did that tonight. I thought (Alli- son Griffin) played good defense. When they do their role, it works out better.” The first quarter of what ended as a nail bitter was forgettable. Both teams committed more turnovers than attempted shots, and the score was a meager 5-4 in favor of Stanfield. Play picked up before the break with the Tigers still holding on to their lead — this time up 19-14. YAKIMA — After a forgetta- ble weekend at the Crescent Val- ley Invitational — where Hermis- ton went 0-2 — the Bulldog boys opened 2018 on the road once again. On Wednesday, Jan. 3, the Bull- dogs made a trip across the border to face AC Davis in Yakima and suffered a 74-60 loss at the hands of the Pirates. “(I) saw better things tonight,” head coach Casey Arstein said, “but you’re not going to win games by giving up 26 points in the fourth quarter.” Despite the loss, Hermiston did some things well. The Bulldogs (4-7) held Davis’ “studs” to only 32 combined points. The Pirates (8-2) were led by sophomore Earl Lee III (18 points) and senior Alexander Delgado (14 points) on their way to their third consecutive victory. Down only six points at the half and trailing 31-25, Hermiston came out of the break scoring 16 of its 60 points. The early second-half efforts were thanks to a sev- en-point third-quarter performance from junior Ryne Andreason. Andreason finished with 12 points on the night behind junior Cesar Ortiz, who had a team-high 16 points. The Bulldogs entered the fourth quarter only down 48-41 but some mental mistakes led to a handful of turnovers that Davis was easily able to take advantage of. Herm- iston’s first home game in nearly three weeks — a matchup against Silverton that was scheduled for Friday — was canceled, but the Bulldogs will take the Dawg House floor Friday at 7 p.m. against Sun- set, a 6A school from Portland. Hermiston head coach resigns after six seasons HERMISTON HERALD After six years at the helm of the Hermiston girls soccer team, head coach Danielle MacBride has resigned. “It was a tough decision,” she said, “but I’m getting to the point in furthering my education that I just can’t dedicate the time it requires.” MacBride also said she may be required to move within the next year. She joined the program after one of its most successful seasons — an 11-3-0 record to close out 2011 — and leaves with a 24-35- 10 overall record. This past season, the Bulldogs finished second in the Class 5A Columbia River Conference and was ranked No. 20 in the state. Hermiston will prepare to move into the WIAA next year. Per Hermiston athletic director Larry Usher, there is no immediate timeline to begin the hiring process for finding a new head coach. SCOREBOARD Usher named Admin of Year for Hermiston Local slate PREP BOYS BASKETBALL Wednesday Riverside at Irrigon, 7:30 Friday Stanfield at Heppner, 6 p.m. Sunset at Hermiston, 7 p.m. Irrigon at Umatilla, 7:30 p.m. Saturday Culver at Stanfield, 2:30 p.m. Umatilla at Burns, 5 p.m. Hermiston at La Grande, 7:30 p.m. HERMISTON HERALD PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL Wednesday Riverside at Irrigon, 6:30 p.m. Hermiston at Post Falls (ID), 7 p.m. Friday Irrigon at Umatilla, 6 p.m. Stanfield at Heppner, 7:30 p.m. Saturday Culver at Stanfield, 4 p.m. Hermiston at La Grande, 5:45 p.m. Umatilla at Burns, 6:30 p.m. PREP WRESTLING Friday Hermiston, Pendleton, Mac-Hi, Riverside, Irrigon, Heppner at Oregon Classic (Redmond) Saturday Hermiston, Pendleton, Mac-Hi, Riverside, Irrigon, Heppner at Oregon Classic (Redmond) Echo at Bonanza Invite PREP SWIMMING Saturday Pendleton, Hermiston at Baker, Noon PHOTO COURTESY OF HERMISTON SCHOOL DISTRICT Hermiston athletic director Larry Usher speaks to the students at an assembly on Wednesday after being selected as the district’s Administrator of the Year for 2017-18. The Hermiston School Dis- trict announced on Wednesday that athletic director Larry Usher was selected as its 2017-18 Administra- tor of the Year, a district-wide honor. In Usher’s second school year as the AD, he most notably led Herm- iston’s efforts to secure membership in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to better suit the student-athletes in amount of travel time and time missed from the classroom. In a press release, the district also cited other accomplish- ments by Usher, including helping increase student attendance at ath- letic events, starting a student pre- game tailgate party at select ath- letic events, improving the schools’ ‘Boomer’ mascot, and increasing the use of social media to promote events and emphasize the school’s brand. Usher has been with the dis- trict since 2002 when he was first hired as a high school social stud- ies teacher and coached the varsity boys basketball team from 2002- 2010. Then from 2010-2014, Usher moved to Sandstone Middle School where he held titles of dean of stu- dents, assistant principal and prin- cipal before being hired as AD in 2016.