Central Oregonian

Loggers split pair of games

Mitchell falls to Huntington, rebounds to defeat Burnt River

Lon Austin

December 06, 2012

Opening game jitters hurt the Mitchell Loggers as they fell 44-33 to Harper Friday night in the opening round of the Huntington Basketball Tournament.

Mitchell recovered to defeat Burnt River 44-25 Saturday afternoon to take third place in the tournament.

Mitchell fell behind 16-9 in the first quarter of their game with Harper and could never recover.

“It was the first game for both teams and fairly ugly,” said Mitchell head coach Cy Miller. “Harper was bigger than us and we didn’t rebound well defensively.”

The Loggers played better in the second quarter, but still trailed 27-19 going into the locker room at the half.

The two teams played nearly even in the second half, but the damage had already been done as Harper coasted to the win.

Brett Domenighini led Mitchell with 17 points in the game while Logan Fisher also scored 17 to lead Harper. Tino Espinoza added eight points for the Loggers.

Saturday was a different story as the Loggers built an 8-7 first quarter lead. Mitchell extended their lead to 16-12 at the half in the defensive battle.

The Loggers came out on fire to start the third stanza, outscoring Burnt River 12-5 as they blew the game open. “Our zone offense got better in the second half,” Miller said. “But our defense was still very raw.”

Miller added that Domenighini got off to a poor shooting start, but exploded in the second half to finish with 22 points in the contest.

Miller was also impressed with the play of foreign exchange student Adam Szwedowski who scored seven points in the contest.

“Szwedowski put in some good minutes down low despite never playing basketball before,” he said.

Miller added that Jeremy Lanoue also played well in his second varsity start as he finished with eight points. Dustin Kezerle led Burnt River with 10 points.

The Loggers are back in action tonight and Saturday at the North Lake Invitational Tournament. Tonight they take on the host North Lake Cowboys in a 6:30 p.m. contest.

Friday, Nov. 30

at Huntington

Mitchell (33) — Brett Domenighini 17, Espinoza 8, Lindquist 7, Szwedowski 1, Torres.

Harper (44) — Logan Fisher 17. No other information available.

Mitchell 9 10 5 9 — 33

Harper 16 11 8 9 — 44

Three-point goals — Mitchell Domenighini 3, Espinoza 2. Harper: Fisher 2, Brady B.

Saturday, Dec. 1

at Huntington

Mitchell (44) — Brett Domenighini 22, Lanoue 8, Szwedowski 7, Espinosa 5, Torres.

Burnt River (25) — Dustin Kezerle 10. No other information available.

Mitchell 8 8 12 16 — 44

Burnt River 7 5 5 8 — 25

Three-point field goals — Mitchell: Lanoue 2, Domenighini, Espinosa. Burnt River: Cody, Kezerle.