Central Oregonian
558 N. Main St., Prineville, OR 97754 | (541) 447-6205
agle/Indians roll past Cowboys for easy win
The Dalles/Wahtonka pounds ball inside for easy baskets in win
Tevin Cooper is fouled going to the basket. Cooper finished with 15 points and nine rebounds in the Cowboys loss to The Dalles/Wahtonka Friday night.
Playing before the home crowd on senior night wasn’t enough for the Crook County high school boys basketball team as they fell to a talented team from The Dalles/Wahtonka 84-67 Friday night.
“They are a really good team,” said head coach Jeff Lowenbach. “They are in second place right now and as far as I’m concerned they well deserve second place. They’ve got the tools, they are fundamentally strong and they have a big guy inside.”
The Cowboys struggled shooting in the first half both from the floor and the foul line.
The Dalles/Wahtonka took advantage of the cold shooting and pounded the ball inside on the offensive end to open up a 24 to 13 lead at the end of the first quarter. The
Hayden Simpson goes hard to the basket for two of his 17 points Friday night.
In spite of the cold shooting Crook County closed the gap to 30-40 with a minute remaining in the first half.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, Jesse Morales was called for a charge and the Eagle/Indians went on a 5-0 run to close out the first half leading 45-30.
That was as close as the Cowboys could come the rest of the evening.
“We didn’t shoot well in the first half,” Lowebach said. “We were 12-23 from the foul line and just couldn’t get anything to fall. We still fought our way back into it, but we wasted some opportunities.”
Lowenbach added that if the team had made their free throws they would have still been close at halftime and that would have changed the complexion of the second half.
In the second half it didn’t seem to matter what Crook County did, The Dalles/Wahtonka had an answer.
“I thought for the most part the guys played hard,” Lowenbach said. “But our defense needs to be better. If we are going to pick up a win we need to do some work on our defense.”
Hayden Simpson led the way for the Cowboys with 17 points. Tevin Cooper chipped in with 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, and Jordan Reeher contributed 12 points, six rebounds, and six steals.
Branden Young led the way for the Eagle/Indians with 20 points, while Dallis Raynor added 19. James Atoe also finished in double-figures with 11 points, but it was under the basket that Atoe had the biggest impact on the game. The 6-7 330 pounder had 14 rebounds and six blocked shots, while playing just slightly more than a half of basketball.
With the loss the Cowboys fell to 0-8 in the IMC, and 0-17 overall, while the Eagle/Indians raised their record to 6-2 in the IMC and 13-5 overall.
Crook County is off until next weekend when they travel east to take on Pendleton and Hermiston next Friday and Saturday respectively.
The Dalles/Wahtonka (84) — Branden Young 20, Bailey 8, Johnston 4, Coulson 2, Kuechmann 5, Raynor 19, Taphouse 8, Fowlkes 2, Atoe 11, Garcia 2, Crane 2. Totals 33 15-22 84.
Crook County (67) — Hayden Simpson 17, Seaquist 3, Bartels 2, C. Henry 6, Sanchez 7, Morales 5, Cooper 15, Reeher 12, S. Henry, Harper, Brewer. Totals 21 22-40 67.
The Dalles/Wahtonka 24 21 21 18 — 84
Crook County 13 17 15 22 — 67
Three-point goals — TDW: Raynor 2, Kuechmann. Crook County: Simpson, Seaquist, Morales.
