Eryn Kelley rolls in another layup past Wallowa's defenders during EHS's 63-16 steamrollering of the Cougar girls on Friday night. Photo by Michael Lane

EHS Girls 2-0

In a close game Saturday, the Enterprise girls kept their cool to defeat an early-charging Pilot Rock squad 46-40.

Following a 63-16 drubbing of the Wallowa girls on Friday, fans expected to see a lot out of the Savage squad against Pilot Rock, but the first period started off looking grim for the side, with Pilot Rock hustling out to a 16-11 lead, spearheaded by speedy Pilot Rock senior Allison Robles. Enterprise stepped up its defense to an extent in the second period, allowing only eight points, but its shooting remained cold and the team managed only three baskets, leaving them in an uncomfortable seven-point deficit, 24-17, at the half.

“In the first half we didn’t give them enough respect,” noted EHS girls head coach Mike Crawford. “We played much closer to the way we’ve been playing in the second half … in the second we reestablished ourselves inside. They (Pilot Rock) struggled in the third quarter when our play came up to speed.”

Struggled might be putting it mildly. Enterprise came out with a few defensive adjustments and held Pilot Rock to just four points in the third while putting up 10 of their own, six of them thanks to 5′ 8″ senior Kayla Stoffel, who had a great night, going 3-for-3 at the line and amassing 17 points.

The Rockets seemed to get its offense somewhat back on track in the fourth, adding 12 points, but Stoffel and EHS senior Kallie Hadden were both shooting hot and Enterprise got past Pilot Rock’s defense for 19 points in a dramatic fourth period victory.

“Kallie (Hadden) had no points in the first half,” Crawford noted, “but had 11 in the second.”

Calls had a lot to do with the early score, as Crawford pointed out. Enterprise had eight baskets in the first half, and the Rockets had just six, but Pilot Rock went 12-for-20 from the line in the first half while EHS went 1-for-1. What goes around comes around, though, and in the second half the Rockets had a single appearance at the line while Enterprise went 9-for-13 in free throws.

For EHS, Hadden had an excellent day on the boards, pulling down 11 for a double-double and Stoffel claiming six of her own. Senior Jessie Morgan had three steals and both Chelcee Noland and Madi Smith had three assists on the day. Hadden’s presence was definitely felt by Pilot Rock, with her four blocks in addition to her boards.

Coming off a pair of wins at the Ione Tournament, where the Savages beat host Ione 30-15 and the Umatilla Vikings 44-19, the EHS girls are fired up.

“We’ve won two tournaments in a row,” Crawford said. “Which is a cool thing. The girls are really excited.”

Next up for the Enterpsie girls is the Elgin Tournament on Dec. 21-22, with the Tuesday tip off scheduled for 4 p.m.

EHS Boys 1-1

Before a packed house on Friday and Saturday, four schools battled it out on the court, with the boys of host Enterprise splitting its games, falling 76-48 on Friday to a fired-up Ione squad that seemed unable to do anything wrong, and getting some payback Saturday against Wallowa 65-45.

In Friday’s game Ione started slow, outscored 18-12 by the Savages in the first period, but turned the heat up very quickly in the second, racking up 29 points, more than double Enterprise’s 14.

“We started out well,” EHS head coach Duff Pace said. “Then we got a little tight when our shots didn’t fall for us. We got tentative and didn’t run the offense the way we should have … Ione had a great second quarter and started to move away.”

Ione kept moving away steadily, outscoring EHS in both the third and fourth, with the final period seeing the Cardinals with an almost 4-to-1 scoring ratio, putting 19 points on the board compared to EHS’s five.

“We had a chance in the third,” Pace said, “but Ione just seemed to have more energy and out-hustled us.”

Ione’s Tony Bolin, a 5′ 10″ junior, had an extraordinary game, hitting five hoops inside the arc and finding a pair of threes from outside. Added to his 7-for-10 at the line he totaled 23 points on the evening. Ione senior Nick Christman was close behind with 19 points of his own, keeping the win out of Enterprise’s reach. Ione hit 21 goals, seven three-pointers and 13 of its 22 free throws on the night.

Enterprise had a right to feel proud of the play of 6′ 5″ senior Cole Phinney, despite the loss. Phinney had one of his best games, going to the hoop strongly for nine baskets and shooting 1-for-4 from the line to put 21 of EHS’s points on the scoreboard. Phinney also pulled down 11 boards for a double-double on the night. In addition, 6′ 4″ junior Tim Horrocks had five clean blocks against Ione.

On Saturday the Savages squared off against Wallowa and played a solid game, outshooting the Cougars in every period to finish with a 65-45 win.

Wallowa, which looked as though it still hasn’t quite found its basketball legs in the preseason, had some consistent problems getting shots to fall. Senior Ryan Harshfield had an uncharacteristically low six points in the game, and Pat Green led the Cougar offense with just 10 points.

Enterprise, on the other hand, came together and played strongly as a team, feeding the ball well to Phinney, who was having another great game and was responsible for 22 of the Savages’ points.

“Cole is shooting extremely well,” Pace said after the tournament. “We have to find and hit the open guy and we did that and found Cole.”

Senior Craig Swart was a big part of Phinney’s success, Pace noted, with six assists on the evening, five of them to Phinney, but the whole team played well.

“(Jake) VanderZanden did a great job for us at point guard (and) Brinn (Jones) played the best defense of the season for us,” Pace said.

Enterprise also did much better on the boards than it had recently, Pace said, with senior Tim Horrocks leading the side with 11 rebounds.

Wallowa coach Gerry McLain wasn’t satisfied with his team’s play. “It didn’t turn out like we’d like it to, but we have to do what we need to do. We’re still not in basketball shape.” Still, he expects good things to come as the season progresses and his team tightens up physically. “Once we get our legs under us we’ll be in fair shape. We do have good team speed, but it takes some time,” he said.

Enterprise will be traveling to Elgin for the Elgin Tournament on Dec. 21-22.

WHS Boys 0-2

The Wallowa boys didn’t have their most successful basketball tournament ever, falling to Pilot Rock on Friday 49-34 and to Enterprise 65-45 on Saturday, with both games seeing a fizzling Cougar offense.

In the matchup against Pilot Rock the Cougars suffered from shooting that just wasn’t there, going a disappointing 13-for-72 to shoot a dismal 18 percent.

“We couldn’t make a shot,” Wallowa head coach Gerry McLain admitted. “Once we missed a few easy shots we tried to force the ball and it just wouldn’t fall in.”

Pilot Rock, led in scoring by Jimmy Doherty with 14 points, found the rim a lot more often, and was helped on its way to victory by numerous appearances at the foul line, with Wallowa racking up 18 team fouls and Patrick Green, who seemed to catch the referees’ attention with an early comment, fouling out in the fourth period.

Wallowa also gave its opponent too many chances to score over the course of the game and didn’t crash the boards the way he had hoped the team would, McLain said.

“Our rebounding was a little suspect and we gave them too many second opportunity shots. We don’t have much height … we have to learn to screen folks out.”

Still, overall, the Cougars played a defense that should have kept them competitive in both matches. As against Weston-McEwen, the inability to get the ball to fall cost them dearly. Even usually accurate senior Ryan Harshfield could only find eight points, and four of those came from the line.

Against Enterprise on Saturday, Wallowa seemed to suffer exactly the same fate, putting up a decent defense, controlling its opponent’s scoring well enough to compete, but failing to capitalize on its shooting at the level it should. Case in point, Kaleb Oveson, despite being gifted with a great vertical leap and sure hands, could not find the basket once over the course of the entire game.

The Cougar situation wasn’t helped by the incredible performance Enterprise’s Cole Phinney turned in, or Tony Swart’s always reliable play. In almost every game he’s played this season, Swart has been good for 16 to 18 points for the Savages, and he turned in 18 against Wallowa.

McLain isn’t despondent about the performance of his squad and said he believes the team is still suffering some of the effects of their lack of early practices this season, which has effected team’s conditioning.

“I thought we played even except for the second quarter where we went 1-for-17 from the field,” McLain reflected. “We’ve been struggling with the basics – taking good shots and making them. Once our shooting touch comes back we’ll be fine.”

Wallowa’s next game will be its first league matchup, when the Cougars host Adrian on Friday, with JV girls leading off at 3 p.m. Wallowa will travel to Halfway to play new OOL opponent Pine Eagle on Saturday.

Friday Girls

EHS 63 – WHS 16

Saturday Girls

Ione 48 – WHS 19

EHS 46 – PR 40

Friday Boys

PR 49 – WHS 34

Ione 76 – EHS 48

Saturday Boys

WHS 65 – EHS 45