WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018
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Vikings get their revenge in The Pit
Umatilla hands Irrigon
first loss of season in
thrilling fashion
By ERIC SINGER
STAFF WRITER
The last time the Umatilla Vikings
and Irrigon Knights met back on
Feb. 17, 2017, at The Pit at Umatilla
High School, the Vikings used some
late magic to knock off the Knights
to capture the district title.
The two teams met for the first
time in 2018 on Friday night back
at The Pit and the game nearly fol-
lowed the same exact script, right
down to the end result.
The Vikings erased a six-point
deficit in the final three minutes
of play to stun the Knights 42-39,
handing the Knights their first loss
of the season and extending their
win streak over their league rival to
four straight.
“Oh man this feels great,” said
Umatilla junior Trent Durfey after
the win, smiling from ear-to-ear.
“We just wanted to come in and play
our game and hopefully get the win
and that’s what we did. We wanted
to start off league 1-0.”
The Vikings (13-3 overall, 1-0
Eastern Oregon League) led for the
entire third quarter and seemed in
control until the Knights (13-1, 2-1)
made a run early in the fourth, tying
the game at 31-31 and running out to
a 39-33 lead with three minutes left.
It forced Umatilla to call a tim-
eout and regroup to make one last
push, where head coach Scott Bow
said he used a familiar message to
spark his team to the finish line.
“Whether it’s a coincidence or
not, it’s the same message we gave
a few weeks ago at Nixyaawii when
we were down to start the fourth
quarter there,” Bow said. “I told the
kids our defense has got to do its
thing. They (Irrigon) have 39 and we
have to keep them below 41 to win
this game. We can score more than
40, but we won’t be able to win this
if they score more than 41 and sure
enough, we held them scoreless the
rest of the way.”
A 3-pointer by Uriel Garcia and
a fast-break lay-in by Seth Crans-
ton off an Irrigon turnover had the
Vikings back in it, trailing 39-38 with
1:30 left. After another Irrigon turn-
over, Kaden Webb’s floater with 45
seconds left gave the Vikings a 40-39
lead. And then, off another Knights
missed shot and another turnover,
Umatilla quickly moved the ball
down the court to Durfey for a lay-in
while drawing a foul for a 42-39 lead
with eight seconds left, sending the
home crowd into a frenzy.
HERMISTON HERALD
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Umatilla’s Kaden Webb passes the ball surrounded by Irrigon defenders in the Vikings 42-39 win against the Knights
on Friday in Umatilla. Below, Umatilla’s Uriel Garcia drives past Irrigon’s Johnny Phillips on his way to the basket.
“I was just thinking, ‘Hey, I’m
wide open. Get me the ball and
see what I can do with it,’” Durfey
recalled thinking. “All I could think
then was hopefully I make it, that’s
all I wanted to do was just make it.
When it went in, I was pumped.”
“I’ve been to a lot of high school
games around here, but when we
have standing room-only for the
league opener here at The Pit is awe-
some,” Bow said. “I can’t wait to see
what the game at Irrigon looks like
in a few weeks.”
Both schools will host league
opponents with Burns traveling
to Irrigon for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff on
Friday and Umatilla will welcome
Nyssa at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Bulldogs stumble in 2018 home debut
Dawgs get toppled
by strong second
half performance
from the Apollos
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
It was a homecoming of
sorts for the Hermiston boys
basketball team Friday.
The Bulldogs had not
played a game in the Dawg
House since Dec. 12,
because of their extensive
travel schedule and can-
cellations due to inclement
weather.
With the return home
came an outcome that was
less than favorable.
Hermiston entered the
matchup with the Class 6A
Metro League Sunset Apol-
los losing four of its last five
games — which includes
three consecutive losses —
and after a 76-61 loss at the
hands of the Apollos, Herm-
iston’s skid increases to four
straight losses.
“I wasn’t disappointed
in the effort,” head coach
Casey Arstein said. “I know
kids played hard, a lot better
than what I saw on the road
the last few games, I’m just
disappointed in the loss at
home.”
With the home court
advantage, the Bulldogs bat-
tled back in the first half to
overcome a small deficit.
Dawgs
finish
top 8 at
Oregon
Classic
Sunset had a narrow lead
after the first quarter and
was up 19-15. Hermiston
answered with a 22-point
second-quarter
perfor-
mance that put the Bulldogs
(4-8) up 37-32 going into
halftime.
The Apollos (5-9) shot
well all night long, and
started the game hitting three
3-pointers in the first quarter
— Sunset finished with six
total threes on the night.
Sunset was going to
stretch its lead to 19-12 after
the first eight minutes of
play, but Hermiston junior
Cesar Ortiz knocked down
his first three of the night to
cut the deficit to only two
possessions — Ortiz was
responsible for all three of
the team’s shots from behind
the arc.
In a game of runs, Sunset
took back the lead at the start
of the second quarter, but
again Ortiz hit a 3-pointer
off the corner to knot the
score at 24 points apiece.
The crowd quickly fell
silent as sophomore Braeden
Sato traded threes with
Ortiz. Sato finished with
a game-high 25 points for
Sunset.
But yet again, Ortiz’s
three is good and after one
more lead change, the Bull-
dogs managed to hold on
to the five point lead at the
break.
Hermiston held on to that
advantage for more than
half of the third quarter, and
were up by as many as eight
points. But Sunset began
chipping away at its deficit,
caught up and then passed
the Bulldogs to enter the
fourth quarter up 51-50.
“Things were going a lit-
tle smooth there,” Arstein
said of the third-quarter per-
formance. “We were kind of
getting anything we wanted
on offense as long as we
took care of the ball, and
then Jordan (Ramirez) goes
out and then (we) pick up
some stupid fouls — they go
to the free throw line, they
back door us a couple of
times, (it’s) a game of runs
and they definitely had more
runs in the second half.”
Despite the loss, Arstein
saw some things he liked.
One was the effort of junior
Adrian Mendez.
Mendez played a key roll
in Hermiston’s comeback
attempt at the end, as he
scored 16 of his 22 points in
the second half.
Hermiston had a quick
turnaround and traveled to
La Grande the following
day.
At La Grande, the Herm-
iston Bulldogs’ lost their
fifth straight game with a
10-point defeat at the hands
of the La Grande Tigers.
Turnovers and missed
opportunities hurt Herm-
iston’s chance at a come-
back. In the first half alone,
the Bulldogs committed 12
turnovers which led to a
27-18 halftime advantage
REDMOND — A
handful of local schools
made the trip to Redmond
for the Oregon Classic, a
two-day wrestling tour-
nament that features more
than 80 schools from
across the state.
Held at First Interstate
Bank Fair & Expo Cen-
ter, the tournament is still
up into brackets by class
and then into four sepa-
rate pools.
Hermiston competed
in the 5A Pool 4 bracket
and was pitted against
Rex Putnam and Bend.
The Bulldogs went on
to defeat both by scores
of 70-11 and 57-24,
respectively.
In their final match,
the Bulldogs defeated
Wilsonville 46-26.
A handful of wrestlers
finished 3-0, in part due
to a win by forfeit in one
of the three rounds. The
trio of Silas Smith (138),
Joey Gutierrez (195) and
Sean Stewart (220) were
among some of the top
finishers.
In the final day of
competition, the Hermis-
ton and Riverside teams
claimed a podium fin-
ish in their respective
brackets.
In the Class 5A cham-
pionship bracket, the
Bulldogs finished in
eighth place, while the
Pirates edged out Harris-
burg for seventh place in
the Class 3A bracket.
Hermiston was hand-
ily defeated by Dallas,
57-9, in the quarterfinals.
The loss put Hermiston in
the consolation bracket
where it faced defend-
ing state champion Crater
and again lost, 61-18 and
again only three wrestlers
were able to defeat their
opponents.
Hermiston was then
pitted against Silverton in
the seventh-place match.
It was the Bulldogs’ best
performance of the day,
but they still fell short
by a 47-31 score. Adrian
Delgado (106) won by
forfeit, while Gutierrez
was finally able to take
the mat and pinned his
opponent in 1:34. Adrian
Tuia (145) won his bout
by a 7-1 decision. Kirk-
patrick finished the day
2-1 after winning by fall
in 1:20 in his final bout
of the day. Stewart didn’t
need more than a min-
ute to pin his Silverton
foe, and ended his bout in
0:55. Blake was the most
successful Bulldog of the
day and finished a perfect
3-0 after winning his last
bout by fall in 2:22.
SCOREBOARD
Local slate
BOYS BASKETBALL
Friday
The Dalles at Hermiston, 7 p.m.
Nyssa at Umatilla, 7:30 p.m.
Vale at Riverside, 7:30 p.m.
Burns at Irrigon, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Vale at Umatilla, 3 p.m.
Weston-McEwen at Stanfield, 4 p.m.
Nyssa at Irrigon, 4:30 p.m.
Burns at Riverside, 4:30 p.m.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s Thomas McCullough grabs a rebound over
Sunset’s Colby King (11) and Mitchell Scanlan in the
Bulldogs’ 76-61 loss to the Apollos Friday in Hermiston.
for the Tigers.
Hermiston (4-9) bat-
tled back, behind a 16-point
performance from junior
Andrew James, and came
out of the break to outscore
the Tigers 16-11 in the third
quarter.
However, La Grande
(10-6) ran away with it at
the end thanks to the efforts
of juniors Hunter Young-
blood and Braden Bell, who
led the team with 16 and 11
points, respectively.
The Bulldogs played
La Grande in Hermiston
fat 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and
results weren’t available by
press time.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Friday
Burns at Irrigon, 6 p.m.
Vale at Riverside, 6 p.m.
Nyssa at Umatilla, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Nyssa at Irrigon, 3 p.m.
Burns at Riverside, 3 p.m.
Vale at Umatilla, 4:30 p.m.
Weston-McEwen at Stanfield, 5:30
p.m.
WRESTLING
Wednesday
Hermiston at The Dalles, TBD
Friday
Heppner at Grant Union Tournament
Echo at Padilla Invite (ID)
Hermiston at Liberty Invitational
Saturday
Mac-Hi, Riverside, Irrigon, Echo at
Heppner Tournament
Hermiston at Liberty Invitational
SWIMMING
Saturday
Pendleton, Hermiston at Hood River
Valley