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Sports Beware Baker: here come the Eagles
Beware Baker: here come the Eagles
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Joseph continued its march back to the state championship game in Baker City with a 63-26 win against Crane Friday. Joseph point guard Paige Bailey answered questions like a wrong response could disrupt the rotation of the earth. After five minutes she opened up — a little. “It’s a big win,” Bailey said. “We just need to take it one step at a time.” Thankfully her actions speak much louder than words. Joseph frustrated a young Crane team. The Mustangs started two sophomores and a freshman, and tried to knock down the Class 1A giant. The Eagles countered with three players that started on a team that finished second at the state playoffs last year. “This team knows what they want,” Joseph head coach Lance Homan said. “They’re motivated by what happened last season. It’s an easy team to coach, because they know how to take care of business.” The Eagles opened the game on a 14-0 spanning the first three minutes of the game. Everywhere a Mustangs’ player had the ball, two Joseph players were in their face. Hard-nosed defense translated into easy opportunities on the offensive end. And Bailey was there too. She’s able to open up about other players, like she’s able to open up the oppositions defense. “This team is pretty simple to run,” Bailey said. “We have so many options to go to. It’s tough for teams to stop us because someone is going to make the big shot.” Like one co-league Player of the Year assisting another — the Bailey to Nicke Parks connection. Parks opened the game with seven points in the first half, and finished the game with 14. Parks is quick to deflect praise. “We couldn’t do it without each other,” Parks said. “It comes from practice too. Our girls who don’t play much in the games push us in practice. That’s a big benefit. We’re able to keep up our intensity and focus because of them.” Parks was one of four starters to score at least seven points in the opening quarter. The Eagles balanced attack spread out Crane’s defense. Megan Yost led all scores at the half with nine points. Bailey had seven points and Colby Patton finished tallied eight points. “We don’t care who’s scoring,” Parks said. “We just want the points.” That passive approach didn’t continue on the other side of the court — if the Mustangs were able to get that far. It’s one shot and done, as Crane found out. “Our defense as been the key,” Homan said. “It wasn’t as strong last season. But now it’s better than our offense.” The Eagles are yielding 27 points per game during their 26-game winning streak. Umatilla and Imbler both scored a season-high 37 points against the Eagles. Like many other teams before them, Crane found scoring very difficult. One reason — rebounding. Yost, Patton and Parks don’t let the ball touch the floor. Yost and Patton finished with 16 and 11 rebounds, respectively. The checklist grows smaller by the week. A perfect regular season, a league championship and now a trip to final eight teams have been marked off. The final big box left to be marked is a state championship. “We know what we want,” Parks said. “It’s been driving us all year long. This time we won’t come up short.”
Joseph, 26-0 overall, will play Nixyaawii at 1:30 p.m. in Baker Wednesday. Buermann 3 0-0 7, Otley 2 2-4 7, Steeves 1 0-1 3, Landis 0 1-2 1, Nyman 1 0-0 2, O’Crowley 0 1-4 1, Pelroy 2 0-0 5, Cronin 0 0-0 0, Sampson 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 4-11 26. JOSEPH (63) Bailey 4 0-0 9, Harshman 4 0-0 8, Moro 3 0-2 6, Yost 5 3-6 14, Patton 5 1-2 11, Kohlhepp 0 0-2 0, Staigle 0 1-2 1, Bird 0 0-0 0, Parks 6 2-2 14, Shear 0 0-0 0, Williams 0 0-0 0, Warnock 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 7-16 63. Crane 0 0 0 0 – 0 Joseph 0 0 0 0 – 0 3-point goals: Crane, Buermann, Otley, Pelroy; Joseph, Yost, Bailey. |
