Basketball: Cougars edge Outlaws at Mount Fanny Invitational

Published 8:16 am Monday, December 4, 2023

COVE — The Enterprise girls basketball team split a pair of games at the Mount Fanny Invitational in Cove on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2, with a win over Pilot Rock and then a narrow loss to a county foe.

The Outlaws opened the tournament on Friday with a 69-41 win over Pilot Rock.

“This was a tougher game than the score shows,” said Enterprise coach Dan Butterfield. “I was happy with how the girls played defense, rebounded and ran our break.”

Senior Alex Rowley had a great day on the court, scoring 20 points for Enterprise in the win. Nevaeh James added 17 points in the victory.

The Outlaws started the game quickly, scoring 21 points in the first quarter and adding an additional 20 points in the third quarter.

The Outlaws were scheduled to meet the Jordan Valley Mustangs in their game on Saturday, but road conditions prevented the Mustangs from making the trip.

In place of taking the court versus the Mustangs, Enterprise instead met the Lady Cougars of Wallowa with the Cougars escaping with a 43-42 victory.

“We made a few mistakes with our defense that would have made the difference,” said Butterfield of the loss. “The Wallowa girls have a great team and I wish them the best for the season.”

In the loss, the Outlaws saw Rowley put in 13 points to lead Enterprise. Tessa Duncan and James each added eight points.

Individual statistics for Wallowa were not available.

Enterprise (2-1 overall) is on the road on Tuesday, Dec. 5 in a nonleague game versus Joseph (1-1 overall) in an all-county matchup.

Wallowa (3-1 overall) has a few days on the practice court before welcoming Dufur (1-1 overall) to the Cougar gym on Friday, Dec. 8 with a scheduled tipoff time of 3 p.m.

The original version of this story posted online incorrectly reported the record of the Wallowa girls’ basketball team. The team is 3-1 through games of Saturday, Dec. 2. The story also misspelled the name of Outlaw payer Alex Rowley. The story has been corrected.