Central Oregonian

Loggers fall in weekend games

Teams fall to Dayville/Monument and Prairie City

Lon Austin

It was a difficult weekend for Mitchell High School basketball.

Playing on the road, both the Logger boys and girls teams dropped a pair of games over the weekend.

Mitchell girls

“Last weekend was difficult,” said Logger girls basketball coach Tim Foster. “We played really tough basketball on Friday. Unfortunately, turnovers and foul trouble sealed our fate.”

After playing to a 10-10 tie at the end of the first quarter, Mitchell gradually fell behind against the more experienced Dayville/Monument Tigers (8-7, 3-1 in league).

The Loggers trailed 24-18 at the half, before being outscored 19-8 in the decisive third quarter.?From there the Tigers coasted to a 55-36 victory. Megan White scored 14 points to lead the Logger efforts. However, she fouled out after just 13 minutes of playing time.

“Once she went out we struggled to get the ball inside and came apart a bit defensively,” Foster said.”

White was not the only Logger with foul problems in the game. The Loggers committed 21 fouls compared to just seven fouls for the host Tigers.

According to Foster, Saturday’s game against Prairie City was more forgettable.

The outcome was never in doubt as Prairie City (10-5, 5-0 in league) ran away to a 54-29 win.

Chianna Tolton led the Loggers in scoring in the game with a season high nine points.

With the losses the Loggers fall to 3-10 overall and 1-4 in the High Desert League.

Still, Foster is optimistic about the team’s season.

“Our girls have been playing extremely hard and showed a ton of improvement,” he said. “I really feel that if we play our best basketball we have a good chance of getting a couple of wins before the district tournament.”

Mitchell boys

The Mitchell boys team also struggled to be competitive against two of the High Desert League’s top teams.

Dayville/Monument guard Colten Winters exploded for 17 first quarter points as the Tigers ran out to a 29-4 lead over the Loggers Friday night. Winters finished with 24 points as the Tigers won 73-29.

Dayville/Monument is now 15-2 overall and 6-0 in High Desert League play.

Joey Ehmer led the Logger efforts with eight points while Arnie Fox added seven.

Saturday at Prairie City (12-4, 5-1 in league) wasn’t much better for Mitchell.

Prairie City ran out to a 25-3 first quarter lead en route to a 77-31 victory.

Kamil Duda led the Loggers in scoring with 17 points in the game while Brett Domenighini finished with 10.

“They are both very good teams,” said Mitchell head coach Cy Miller. “We would have to play them perfectly for us to have a shot at beating either and we didn’t do that.”

The Mitchell boys team is now 6-7 overall and 3-3 in the league play.

The one bright spot for Mitchell during the weekend was the boys JV game on Saturday, as Mitchell was able to come away with a 19-6 victory.