The Knappa basketball team starts playoffs, the Astoria basketball teams wrap up their regular season with a ceremony and the Seaside girls basketball team finds out where it places in the Cowapa league. Here’s what happened during the busy basketball weekend in Clatsop County.
A senior on the Knappa girls team lights up the gym
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn playoff games teams look for their stars to step up. This was true for the Knappa girls basketball team on Saturday in a game against Trinity Lutheran.
The Loggers entered Saturday looking to do something that hasn’t been done in nearly 50 years. According to head coach Tracie Brockey, the last time a Knappa girls team reached Pendleton three years in a row was 1978. After reaching Pendleton the last two seasons — and finishing third place two years ago — the Loggers knew they’d have to beat an athletic Trinity Lutheran team.
Despite being seeded eighth, the Bend-based team brought a lot of talent and scoring. Most of this scoring was from senior guard Ella Prelog, who became the school’s all time leading scorer earlier this season. With the Loggers being on the road in a hostile environment they would have to rely on their experience and the right arm of senior point guard Mylie Lempea.
The miniature senior guard has had a number of crazy scoring games in her career, but she decided to etch herself in the school’s lore once more. After having a 30-point game against Clatskanie earlier this season, she again decided to take over.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWith the Loggers down by eight points with 2:50 on the clock and staring the end of her career in the face, Lempea decided to go nuclear. The senior made big shot after big shot to help the Loggers stave off a deficit and get her team in the lead. Unfortunately, the Loggers missed free throws down the stretch which allowed Trinity Lutheran to force overtime.
Once overtime started, Lempea continued her hot shooting as she scored six of the Loggers 12 points to lead her team to a 67-61 victory — and a trip to Pendleton.
In total, Lempea scored a career high 36 points and made seven three-pointers. She also scored 27 of her points in the second half and overtime to get the Loggers over the finish line. Sophomore Lucy Oien had perhaps her best game of the season with 20 points. In total, the two combined to score 56 of the Loggers 67 points. This was enough to overcome 22 points from Prelog.
“It was an emotional finish for both teams and I’m just so happy for our girls, coaches and community,” Brockey said via text message on Sunday morning.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe journey doesn’t get any easier for the Knappa team members as they are set to take on No. 1-seed Regis in the opening round of the state playoffs. The Rams have been a juggernaut losing just one game all season. They enter this game with a 26-1 record and their only loss was to 3A defending state champions Amity. This game will take another herculean effort from Lempea if the Loggers want to stay in this one. But knowing this team, they will battle till the end.
For those who want to watch, the game starts at 1:30 p.m on Thursday and will be streamed on NFHS Network.
The Knappa boys basketball team falls short
Perhaps the Knappa boys got the short end of the 2A draw.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThough the Loggers had a very good season and were seeded sixth in the boys 2A bracket, they ran into a team that honestly should have been seeded much higher than 11th due to the difficulty of the schedule.
The Loggers hosted Western Christian on Friday night at the Loggers’ gym. With anticipation among the fans and players, the Loggers played a good first quarter, but soon lost contact due to the talented Pioneers squad.
Though the game was tied at 10 after one, it was clear the Loggers were going to struggle creating offense versus the talented Pioneers’ defense. Led by talented senior guards Sammy Quesada and Parker Reed, the Western Christian team was able to find holes in the Loggers zone and exploit them.
Oliver Stevens was the only Knappa player able to generate any consistent offense as the Loggers had a tough shooting night. This led them to losing 58-43. Even though Western Christian was a superior team, the Loggers were definitely in the game for most of it, but unfortunately just weren’t able to make enough shots. The game got away from them in the third quarter as frustration started to settle in. After falling behind by 22 points in the third quarter, the boys put on their fourth quarter press and were able to cut the deficit to eight before seeing the Pioneers go on another run.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe disappointing loss will obviously cloud another great season for Knappa. For the second year in a row, the boys won 20+ games and finished a solid second place in league behind one of the best teams in the state.
Stevens led the Loggers with a 17 point outing.
An Astoria record falls
There’s an old saying that records are meant to be broken. For the Astoria high school boys basketball team this was true as the school celebrated the recent fall of a record from 1936.
Senior Quin Gohr has been chasing history all season. The four-year varsity player has been a scoring machine for the Fishermen and his goal was finally accomplished. Gohr officially became the Fishermen’s all-time leading scorer after breaking the long held record in a recent game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe was honored for his accomplishments before Friday night’s home game against Cascade.
Gohr continued adding to the record with another 17 points in Friday night’s game. The senior helped the Fishermen come back to win their final home game of the year 53-45 over Cascade. The Astoria team will now wait to see where it ends up in the 4A state playoff rankings as there’s still a couple of games left to play before the Oregon School Activities Association drops its official playoff brackets.
The Seaside girls basketball team finishes in a flurry
The Cowapa league showed it was the deepest team this season for 4A girls basketball.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWith a league title on the line, the Seaside and St. Helens teams were playing for bragging rights. Due to the Seagulls losing to St. Helens twice, the team needed help from Tillamook. The Cheesemakers had beaten the Lions once before and were looking to do it once more. Meanwhile, the Seagulls were looking to beat a young and talented Scappoose team.
The Seagulls did not get the luck they were looking for as St. Helens impressively handled Tillamook by 19 points, 60-41. On the flip side, Seaside had to work hard to survive Scappoose. The Seagulls wrapped up their regular season with a 39-38 road victory against the Indians.
Now that the season is over, the Seaside team will wait to see how it stacks up in the final OSAA rankings. Right now it is ranked No. 3 behind Stayton and Baker, while St. Helens is sixth.
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