By Mike Weber
For Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — With three games left in the regular season, the Hood River Valley Eagles have a chance to reach the OSAA Class 5A girls basketball state playoffs for the first time since 1999.
The Eagles, guided by first-year Coach Zach Pauls, kept their playoff hopes alive with a 46-19 win over the Centennial High Eagles in a Northwest Oregon Conference match-up Feb. 20 in Gresham. The No. 22-ranked Eagles (6-7 NWOC, 9-12 overall) were seeking another key win at home Feb. 24 versus the No. 20-ranked Putnam High Kingsmen (8-5 NWOC, 10-12 overall) to stay in the playoff race.
“We still have a good shot to make the state playoffs,” said Pauls. “It wasn’t necessarily an easy win, but we did play very well, and we held them to just nine points in the first half. The girls played hard, we played very good defense, and we were happy to get the win. We do a pretty good job of trying to allow our opponents to have just one shot on each of their offensive possessions.”
HRV took control of the contest versus Centennial (2-11 NWOC, 5-16 overall), building a 16-4 first quarter advantage. Led by junior forward Isa Rivera (12 points) and senior post Emily Doss (10 points), the Eagles led 25-9 at halftime. With a quick and aggressive defense, HRV held Centennial to three points in the third. HRV has the fifth ranked defense (39.76 points allowed per game average) out of 32 5A squads.
Senior Mia Garcia (seven points), Bella Howe (five points), sophomore Honey Wampler-Bryan (four points) and junior Addi Van Metre (eight points) also contributed to HRV’s offense.
“We knew that if we played well then we would have a good chance to win, but we had to make sure that we worked hard in rebounding and just hold them to one shot on each possession,” said Pauls. “We always work hard on blocking out and we try to limit the number of offensive rebounds by our opponents. I thought that we had a pretty good game plan.”
HRV solidified their fifth-place spot in the nine-team league standings. HRV trails fourth place Putnam with two games remaining in the regular season. The top four NWOC teams qualify for the 16-team 5A state playoffs beginning March 7.
“In order to keep our playoff hopes alive, it’s a must-win situation for us in the last two games,” said Pauls. “We need to beat Putnam and we had a close game with them earlier in the season (a 44-38 road loss Jan. 22), so I think we’ll have a good chance to get a win against them at home.”
The Eagles play Feb. 27 at 5:45 p.m. at home versus Parkrose (0-14 NWOC, 1-20 overall). HRV plays its regular season finale March 2 at 5:45 p.m. on senior night against Milwaukie (3-10 NWOC, 5-14 overall). HRV seniors Garcia, Tess Balzer, Howe, Doss, Natalie Ventura and Brooke Johnson will be honored for their contributions to the Eagle basketball program in a pregame ceremony.
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