Hawks notch 40th straight Big Sky win

The Hawks win streak will likely continue when they meet the Condon-Wheeler Knights (0-6, 3-12 overall) in a home game Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Horizon Christian High. On Saturday the Hawks will face a much more challenging opponent in a 5:30 p.m. road game in Moro vs. the No. 8 ranked Sherman Huskies, who are currently the third place team in the eight-team Class 1A Big Sky standings. The Hawks won 71-56 at home in a Jan. 6 contest against the Huskies.

"Our team has to stay focused and be motivated for every game, no matter who we're playing against," said Lingel. "Overall it was a good win for us and now we're looking forward to our next game. We just take it one game at a time and that's what we focus on, while trying to improve in every game. Our mindset is that we feel that our opponent is better than us and when we play with that type of attitude, then we'll be OK. Even though we know who we're playing and what their record is, we try to avoid focusing on things like that."

Behind 10-8 in early in Friday’s game, Horizon took an 11-10 lead with two minutes, 34 seconds left in the first quarter when senior guard RJ Hicks (season-high 12 points) fired in a three-point field goal; the Hawks never trailed again.

"Our goal is to get back to the championship game again this year and we have a team that is capable of doing that," said Hicks. "We just have to continue fighting and working hard and avoid having any letdowns. We were just working on playing sharp and we were focusing on continuing to improve every aspect of our game, while playing hard the entire game. It's good to have balanced scoring, because then we can be confident that whoever is out on the court has the ability to score."

After leading 14-10 at the end of the first quarter, Horizon was clinging to a 14-12 second quarter advantage. The Hawks then charged in front with an 11-0 run to build a double digit lead. Senior Wes Johnston (season-high 14 pts.) fired in a three-pointer and junior Jared Bryan (10 pts., eight rebounds) sank two free throws to give Horizon a 23-12 lead.

"It felt good to score some points and help take some pressure to score off of Jared Davis and Mason Bloomster," said Johnston. "Our second string guys and everyone else on the bench really stepped up and played well to help us get the win. I just wish that we had a little bit more competition sometimes, instead of having blowout wins like this."

Horizon outscored Ione 15-6 in the second to build a 29-16 halftime lead. In the third, Horizon took control of the game by utilizing an effective half court pressure defense to disrupt a sluggish Cardinal offense, which totaled just two third-quarter points. Horizon, which had a total of 17 steals, created turnovers and converted the scoring opportunities into fast break baskets on layups or short jumpers in the paint while pouring in 22 third quarter points to build a 55-18 lead after three.

Ione was out of synch offensively and suffered the effects of 37 turnovers as they struggled against the Hawks’ aggressive man-to-man defense.

Hawk girls notch second straight Big Sky win

The Horizon Christian School varsity girls won their second straight game Friday by a 47-38 margin over the Ione Cardinals. The senior trio of Hannah Lingel (11 pts.), Hannah Kempf and Trista Hicks combined to score 34 points to help lead the team to victory.

The Hawks, guided by first-year coach Brian Stevens, were seeking to notch a third straight win when they played a nonleague matchup Tuesday at Trout Lake (results unavailable at press time). Horizon won an earlier matchup 34-29 over Trout Lake at home Dec. 17. The Hawks (2-4 Big Sky, 5-10 overall) and play the No. 1 ranked Condon-Wheeler Knights (6-0, 15-1) in their next home game Friday at 6 p.m.

"The girls played really well tonight from start-to-finish," said Stevens. "We had two players (Trista Hicks, Jodee Hicks) who fouled out, but everyone played hard to help us get a win. Hannah Kempf had an outstanding game and without her, we wouldn't have won. She's our floor general and she leads the team in helping us handle the full court press. She was our defensive leader and she just sets a good example for her teammates about how to play good basketball."

Utilizing an effective two-three zone defense, the Hawks jumped out to a double digit lead, while shutting down Ione offensively and going in front 13-2 at the end of the first quarter. Horizon's defense continued to thwart Ione, while holding the Cardinals to single digit scoring (six pts.) again in the second as the Hawks extended their lead to 30-8 at halftime.

Horizon continued its solid performance in the third and a baseline drive underneath resulted in a layup by freshman Alexis Ruiz to make it 35-10 with 5:01 left in the quarter. A steal and breakaway layup by Kempf (nine pts.), followed by a layup off a Hawk fast break by Hicks (team-high 14 pts.) gave Horizon its largest lead of the game at 39-10. Ione (3-4 Big Sky, 3-10) scored five straight to trim the margin to 39-15 after three.

"We're definitely having a lot more fun than we had last year, which was really a tough season," said Kempf. "Our practices were not much fun last year, because it was all business and we just didn't enjoy it very much. We're having lots of fun playing with Brian and assistant coach Kevin Dale. We do fun stuff, but at the same time, we also have a serious attitude because we know that we need to improve as well. We're definitely glad that we're going to have a good chance to reach the district playoffs this year."

Ione had a solid comeback effort in the fourth, outscoring Horizon 23-8 to trim the final margin to a single digit deficit.

"It's been a long time since Horizon has had back-to-back wins," said Stevens. "It's going to be a tough challenge against Condon-Wheeler on Friday, but we'll see what we can do. We'll just hope that the girls can continue playing as well as they have in these last two games."

Horizon is seeking to advance to the Big Sky District Playoffs for the first time since 2012. The top six teams in the league advance to the playoffs, which follows shortly after the final regular season game Feb. 14. Horizon is holding onto sixth place, ahead Mitchell-Spray (1-6, 6-10) and South Wasco County (1-6, 3-13).