Pendleton

(Above is a game we played in early February against another state team---JFK high school)

Nothing beats basketball in February & March. We have had 2 weeks of intense & amazing basketball that was playing & now we head to the state tournament in Pendleton, Oregon. There is not much in Pendleton. Only two things happen each year there....the Pendleton round-up & the state tournament. That however, is the cool thing. The entire community gets involved in the tournament. The town opens its doors & brings in hundreds of people for a week of intense, non-stop basketball.

We leave tomorrow afternoon & play on Thursday at 1:30. This is an excerpt from oregonprepsports.net:

QUARTERFINALS

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Western Mennonite vs. DeLaSalle - Thursday at 1:30 pm

A- Western Mennonite TRC #1 (21-7, 13-3)

With Coach Gary Hull earning his 400^th career victory, the Pioneers return to Pendleton for the third straight year, planning for a better finish than last season’s 4^th place trophy. In 2007, Western Mennonite came to town with a #1 ranking and undefeated record against 2A opponents. But in the opening quarterfinal game, Bonanza’s Daniel Clark hit a fade-away basket as time expired to beat the Pioneers, 49-47. Behind the play of 2007 2A POY Mike Woodard, Western Mennonite won the next three games to take the 4^th place trophy. Woodard is now gone and playing at Multnomah Bible College in Portland. But coach Hull’s team simply reloaded and battled to a 13-3 record in the rugged TRC, finishing a game behind 1^st place Kennedy. The Pioneer’s knocked off the Trojans, 59-45, in the TRC seeding finale to claim the TRC #1 berth. After a first round win over Chiloquin, Western Mennonite is back in the hunt, this time hoping to move to the right side of the bracket on opening day.

The Pioneers return three starters from last year’s 4^th place team: senior Daniel Martin, junior Geoffrey Martin and junior Lewis Menges. Both Martin brothers were also on the 2006 team that finished 5^th at Pendleton. But the story for 2008 is the play of freshman phenomenon Pierre Zook, who will make his debut on the Convention Center hardcourt to open the boys’ tournament.

B- DeLaSalle North Catholic NWL #2 (20-7, 11-3)

The Knights are making their first Pendleton appearance since the school opened with 71 9^th graders in 2001. First year coach Forbes Lapp, a veteran coach from Washington, guided his young team to a solid 2^nd place finish in the Northwest League and a first round win over visiting Central Linn. For his effort, Coach Lapp was honored by his peers as the NWL COY for 2008. DeLaSalle did not play Western Mennonite this season, but the Knights did beat Kennedy, 55-53, in the Kennedy Classic holiday tournament.

DeLaSalle is led by junior southpaw Donta Harris, named the NWL POY for 2008. Harris gets some inside help from sophomore post Robert Auger (NWL 2^nd team), sophomore Royshad Curry (NWL HM) and junior Terence Kendrick (NWL HM). None of these young Knights have played at Pendleton before; but 2008 is a year of many firsts for DeLaSalle North Catholic.

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If you want to keep up with us, you can check out oregonprepsports.net daily for recap of games, or check the statesman journal daily, or listen to the games live. You can print out a bracket to find the times of each game at osaa.org (just remember, we are the 2A tournament) & then go to http://osaa.org/media/radionetwork/default.asp & find Western Mennonites game. It will open up Windows Media Player & you can listen live to all the games. I, of course, will be courtside enjoying every minute of this week/weekend! This will be the first year there with my wife as well. Hopefully we will return & we will be state champs!