Central Oregonian

Mitchell wins three of four

Loggers knock off Mountaineers, Eagles, and Cougars before falling to Long Creek in play-off

Lon Austin

February 14, 2013

With the clock winding down and the score tied the Mitchell Loggers set up one final play.

Brett Domenighini took the ball to the corner of the foul line, and calmly knocked down a jump shot just as time expired to give the Loggers a dramatic 43-41 victory over the Long Creek Mountaineers.

“The buzzer sounded while the ball was in the air,” said Mitchell head coach Cy Miller. “The shot hit the backboard, then the front iron, back iron, then fell through.”

The dramatic shot helped propel Mitchell out of a mid-season slump, and into the district playoffs. The Loggers needed something special to reach the district tournament, and the last-second shot was just what they needed as Mitchell went on to win three league games in a row to finish in a tie for third place in the Western division of the High Desert League.

In back-to-back games, the Loggers topped the Long Creek Mountaineers, 43-41, the Spray Eagles, 36-30, and the Ukiah Cougars, 53-36.

“The game with Long Creek was close all the way,” Mitchell head coach Cy Miller said.

With both teams struggling to score, Mitchell took a 6-3 lead in the first quarter.

Long Creek outscored Mitchell 14-12 in the second quarter leaving the Loggers with a slim, 19-17, halftime lead.

Long Creek came out strong to start the second half, and led by as many as eight points in the third quarter. However, Mitchell made a run late in the period to close to within two at the end of the period.

From there, the game went back and forth with the Loggers finally tying the game with 30 seconds left.

When Long Creek missed a shot with less than 20 seconds to go Mitchell gained possession of the ball setting up Domenighini’s late game heroics.

Domenighini led Mitchell with 17 points, while Adam Szwedowski added nine and Bryce Jorgensen added eight.

After the emotional win over Long Creek the Loggers struggled early in their game with the Eagles.

Spray was able to take a 10-6 lead in the first quarter.

Mitchell clamped down on defense in the second quarter tying the game 13-13 at the half. The Loggers finally got their offense into high gear in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 15-5 to take control of the game.

“We played atrocious in the first half,” Miller said. Luckily for us, Spray did too.

Once again Domenighini led Mitchell in scoring with 17. Jorgensen also had a solid game, finishing with eight points.

In their final game of the regular season, the Loggers easily rolled over the Cougars. Mitchell jumped out to a 13-2 first-quarter lead and never looked back. The Loggers led 33-8 at the half, then substituted freely in the second half.

Despite not playing much of the second half Domenighini finished with 23 points in the contest while Szwedowski added eight.

“We were able to play some of our less experienced guys in the third and fourth quarter,” Miller said. “I was pleased with our play other than going 5-23 from the free throw line.”

With the top four teams in each half of the league reaching the tournament, the wins guaranteed Mitchell a post-season game. However, before they could reach the High Desert tournament the Loggers had to play a game with Long Creek to determine which team would be the number three and which would be the number four seed for the tournament.

Playing the Mountaineers for the second time in just over a week, the Loggers were unable to keep pace, falling 47-30 to Long Creek.

The Mountaineers jumped on top early and never trailed in the contest as they rolled to the win.

“We’ve struggled to score all season,” Miller said. “We picked a bad day to score 30.”

Jorgensen led the Loggers in scoring with 11, while Domenighini pitched in with eight.

Mitchell goes into the district tournament with a 10-10 overall record and a 5-5 league mark.

However, as a result of the loss to Long Creek, Mitchell has the unenviable task of taking on Jordan Valley, the number one seed from the Eastern half of the league in the first round of the district tournament.

“We played their JV in the preseason and lost by 34, so it will be a tough game,” Miller said.

The High Desert League tournament opened on Thursday in John Day. The tournament continues through Saturday with the top three teams qualifying for the state playoffs.

Mitchell 43, Long Creek 41

at Mitchell

Long Creek (41) — Brush 11, Moodenbaugh 10, Studtmann 10, Dunn 4, Calderwood 4, Parolini 2.

Mitchell (43) — Brett Domenighini 17, Szwedowski 9, Jorgensen 8, Espinoza 4, Nicol 3, Lindquist 2.

Long Creek 3 14 26 8 — 41

Mitchell 6 13 12 12 — 43

Three-point goals — Long Creek: Brush; Mitchell: Jorgensen 2, Domenighini.

Mitchell 36, Spray 30

at Spray

Mitchell (36) — Brett Domenighini 17, Jorgensen 8, Lindquist 4, Szwedowski 3, Espinoza 2, Nicol 2;

Spray (30) — Tankersly 12, Br. Henry 8, Ordway 6, Be. Henry 3, Helms.

Mitchell 6 7 15 8 — 36

Spray 10 3 5 12 — 30

Three-point goals — Mitchell: Jorgensen 2, Lindquist; Spray: Be. Henry, Br. Henry.

Mitchell 53, Ukiah 36

at Mitchell

Ukiah (36) — Pedra 14, Lynch 10, Alford 8, Killerman 2, Kim 2.

Mitchell (53) — Domenighini 23, Szwedowski 8, Espinoza 7, Jorgensen 6, Lindquist 4, Nicol 4, Cheung 1.

Mitchell 13 20 11 9 — 53

Ukia 2 6 13 15 — 36

Mitchell 30, Long Creek 47

Mitchell (30) — Jorgensen 11, Domenighini 8, Lindquist 3, Szwedowski 3, Espinoza 2, Nicol 2.

Long Creek (47) — I. Studtmann 21, S. Studtmann 10, Moodenbaugh 8, Brush 4, Parolini 4.

Mitchell 9 5 6 10 — 30

Long Creek 16 8 10 13 — 47

Three-point goals — Mitchell: Jorgensen 3, Lindquiest; Long Creek: not available.