Amity wins league play offs, hosts round 2
Amity girls basketball skinned the Jefferson Lions on Saturday in the 3A PacWest league playoff and entered the 3A state playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
The Warriors won 59-38, sweeping Jefferson for the third time this season.
Amity’s junior guard Adie Nisly led the contest with 19 points and notched a dozen in the first quarter.
Senior wing Saralynn Grove chipped in 15 points for the Warriors and junior post Kylie Wilson added eight.
The Warriors are 26-0/16-0 and will host a second-round match on Feb. 28. They will face the winner of the Valley Catholic and Riverdale play-in game, the 17th and 16th-ranked teams.
Dayton boys basketball fell to Taft 62-52 at the 3A PacWest league playoff game on Saturday.
The Pirates are still in the state playoffs and finished second in the PacWest league with a 17-10, 12-4 record.
Senior post Clyde Rosenberg led the Pirates with 32 points.
Dayton was right with the No. 1 ranked Taft Tigers and led by one point to finish the third. However, the Tigers garnered a 10-point lead in the fourth, outpacing the Pirates.
Dayton head coach Ron Hop said the Pirates were short-handed as Stephen Macias, a bulldog on defense, was out of town due to a funeral.
“Our margin of error is really small because of our youth and depth of team,” Hop said, adding that the team seemed “gassed” when the fourth quarter came around.
At the Jan. 17 match up against Taft, senior 6-4 guard Lane Garrison sustained a compound fracture early in the game and his high school basketball career unsettled. Garrison was a leader on the team and was always charged with defending the opponents toughest guard and finding an open teammate.
This was a blow to the team’s confidence and rhythm for the season, as younger players were called up to fill the void.
Hop said after Garrison’s injury the team’s negativity was palpable.
“You could tell, they were like, ‘well there goes our season,’” he said.
It took five losses before the Pirates found their new rhythm. They dropped down in the league rankings to fourth and fought their way back to second place.
“The kids rose to the challenge, which is what high school sports is all about,” he said.
Hop said he’s coached teams with a lot of success, but couldn’t be prouder of this team for as they have.
“We’ll see where it goes,” he said. “All our kids are staying in the fight and that’s all you can do until there are no games left.”
The Pirates will advance to the state playoffs as the No. 11 seed and travel to Cascade Christian on March 1 for round two.
Cascade is the No. 6 seed winning the Southern Oregon district and totes a 19-4 record.
The Yamhill-Carlton girls team got their revenge against Corbett on Thursday in the second round of the Coastal Range League tournament, jumping out to a 26-10 first quarter lead and never letting up.
Madyson Bell dominated with 20 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, five steals and a block, and Emma Rodriguez hit 5-of-10 from the three-point line as the Tigers beat Cardinals 77-55 in Corbett, after losing to them twice in league.
YC had 46 points in the paint compared to 18 for Corbett, and won the rebounding battle 41 to 30.
Arlette Vilorio had 11 points and five assists. Kaitlyn Knapp chipped in with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and Charlie Vertner added eight points and four assists.
The Tigers had little time to celebrate, and they had to play No. 1 seeded Banks the following day at Lewis & Clark College for the league title.
YC went down 19-2 in the early going. They tried to comeback late, outscoring Banks 15-7 in the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell 47-35.
The Tigers ended up ranked No. 8 in 3A. Unfortunately, No. 9 Coquille won their league for an automatic home playoff game. Thus, YC will have to go on the road to face Coquille Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
The winner of that game will earn a bid to the state tournament and likely face Amity in the quarterfinals.
Willamina girls basketball ended their season at the district playoff, falling 47-33 to No. 3 Taft.
The Bulldogs finished the season with a 10-15, 6-10 record. They were at the bottom of the rankings early in league and clawed tooth and nail to a higher spot.
The Bulldogs came in fourth in league, when Sheridan won the final regular league match 38-31 on Feb. 14. This resulted in another Bulldog v. Spartan game on Feb. 18.
But, this time Willamina squeak out a 39-36 victory
With 3:30 remaining, Willamina post Zoie Sickles converted an inside bucket off an inbounds pass making it 39-32.
Sheridan scored two more buckets, but it was too little too late and the Bulldogs claimed a bid to the league playoffs.
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