Edited to add sports schedule Feb. 10:25 am
by Wayne Lee – Sports Editor
The Eagle Point wrestling team enjoyed a good week posting a 58-22 dual meet victory Feb. 5 before traveling to the Cottage Grove Invitational Feb. 6 and 7 where they took the team title out of 41 schools. The Eagles totaled 272.5 points, 86 points higher than the nearest competitor.
Nathan Mallari (144) and Gavin Pogue (165) both won their respective weight classes tp lead Eagle Point. Issac De La Cruz (165) placed third, Brett Jermain (138) and Eli Hamann (175) finished fourth, Colby Price (175), Cooper White (132) and Jaxon DeVette (120) placed fifth and Gage Hamann (144), Erhan Metcalf (150) and Sean McFall (157) all placed sixth to round out the team scoring.
Earlier in the week the Eagles dominated visiting South Medford, winning in a dual meet that saw Eagle Point win 11 of 14 matches. Cruz Rios (106), Vaughn Graff (113), Damian Amaral (126), Cooper White 132), Brett Jermain (138), Nathan Mallari (150) and Colby Price (175) all won by fall. Sean McFall (157) won by technical fall 20-4 as did Gavin Pogue (165) 23-4. Wyatt Dahling (120) and Ethan Metcalf (150) won by forfeit to round out the scoring. South Medford’s only wins came in the final three weight classes at 190, 215 and 285.
Basketball
After a brief Tuesday off, the Eagle Point High School basketball teams jumped into the home stretch of league games to close out the regular season. The Lady Eagles continued to chase a playoff berth while the boys’ team dropped its 13th straight game.
Both teams hosted Thurston on Feb. 6. In prior matchups, the Lady Eagles had posted a 10-point win on the road while the boys dropped a 91-39 to the league-leading and fourth ranked Colts. The rematch saw much of the same.
The Lady Eagles got off to a slow start, falling behind in the early going as Thurston built a 15-10 lead in the first quarter and expanded it to 25-17 at the half. Eagle Point turned up the pressure in the second half. “We trailed 32-23 before going on a 19-point run to take the lead,” said coach Denise Ledbetter.
The Lady Eagle defense shut down Thurston in the second half, holding the Colts to just 11 points in the second half. It was such a complete shutdown Thurston’s only points over the final eight minutes were a three-point basket and a single free throw as they pulled away to a 44-36 victory.
This was a big win for us,” said the coach. “It keeps our playoff hopes alive.” Emary Haning led the team with 17 points, 14 rebounds and eight steals. Karris Johnson had 12 points and four steals while Kolbie Ledbetter had eight points and 11 rebounds while older sister Kady added four points and four boards in the winning effort.
The Lady Eagles face a tough week this week hosting Springfield and Crater, the top two teams in the league who are ranked second and third in the state respectively and the only two teams to defeat Eagle Point in league play.
The boys team had their hands full, taking on a Thurston team that came in ranked fifth in the state with a 14-5 overall record and 6-1 in league play. The Colts wasted little time as they ran off the first 12 points of the game and led 24-10 after one quarter. Thurston began the second period with 14-4 run to lead 48-16 at the half.
The Colts scored 24 points in each of the first two quarters and another 22 in the third. By contrast, the Eagles didn’t reach 24 points until the end of the third period. By then they trailed 70-24 and the fourth quarter was played under a running clock to bring the contest to an early end. Wyatt Kirby led the Eagle Point offense with eight points, five of which were scored in the opening quarter. The Eagles are now 0-7 in league and 2-17 overall.
