Tigers bounce back for a third-place finish

STAYTON — La Grande head coach Aaron Mills got what he expected out of the week — a third place finish at the Stayton tournament.

The Tigers bounced back from a loss to Stayton Tuesday to defeat Scappoose 79-58 Wednesday.

“We’re not in that upper class of 4A teams yet,” Mills said. “The boys played a lot better and executed the offense really well.”

La Grande hit on all

cylinders in the first quarter, building a 30-13 lead after

one quarter.

“All the outside shots were going in,” Mills said. “That

didn’t happen in the second quarter.

“We talked about shot selection at halftime. From there on out, the boys did a better job of taking the ball to the hole.”

Kevin Attila led the Tigers with 20 points, hitting five 3-point field goals.

Dylan Tischmack connected on three shots from behind the arc.

“Dylan is a guy who can kill teams in a zone defense,” Mills said. “He’s got a smooth shot, and can find the holes to get the shot off.”

Ryan Tooke and Josh Yundt each finished with 13 points.

Mills did find one sore spot — the Tigers’ defense.

“We just couldn’t stop them. They played a dribble and drive offense, and the boys didn’t do a good job handling it. That’s the area we need to fix to compete with the top teams.”

La Grande (4-4) stayed on the west side of the state. On Friday, the Tigers will play at No. 2 Tillamook at 6 p.m.

“It’s going to be the biggest test of the week,” Mills said.

LA GRANDE (79)

Attila 6 1-4 20, Yundt 4 4-4 13, Tooke 5 2-4 13; Boyd 4 1-1 10, Tischmack 3 0-0 9, Townsend 3 0-0 8, Chandler 3 0-0 6, Nice 0 0-0 0, Wanta 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 8-13 79.

SCAPPOOSE (58)

Sauyer 6 2-6 14, Hendry 3 6-6 13, Kiden 3 3-4 9, Jones 3 2-5 8, Cronhen 1 4-4 6, Updike 2 0-1 4, Paxston 1 0-0 2, Hale 1 0-0 2, Brody 0 0-0 0, Davidson 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 17-26 58.

La Grande         30   8 18 23 — 79

Scappoose           13 12 14 19 — 58

3-point field goals: LG, Attila 5, Yundt, Tooke, Tischmack 3, Townsend 2, Boyd; Scapoose, Hendry.