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The Dalles guard Eric Flores gets fouled on his way to the basket in the second half of Wednesday’s non-league boys basketball game against Sisters. The Riverhawks, playing their first game in 15 days, ended up losing by a 48-30 score.
The Dalles guard Eric Flores gets fouled on his way to the basket in the second half of Wednesday’s non-league boys basketball game against Sisters. The Riverhawks, playing their first game in 15 days, ended up losing by a 48-30 score.
The Dalles trailed by 19 points late in the third quarter and cut its deficit down to eight points two minutes into the fourth period, but the Sisters’ Outlaws went on an 11-2 run down the stretch for a 48-30 victory Wednesday in a non-league boys’ basketball game played at Kurtz Gym.
While the effort and defensive energy was there, Sisters played at a methodical pace for most of the game to thwart TD’s transition attempts.
“We won the pace war for about halfway through the third to about halfway through the fourth quarter. That’s when we were able to close the gap,” said TD head coach Nathan Morris. “That was really the only stretch where we controlled the pace. Typically, between a battle of pace where you have a team trying to slow it down and a team trying to speed up, whoever wins that battle is going to win the game. They (Sisters) did a good job of that.”
Down by a 33-17 margin with 1:34 left in the third quarter, Oscar Fernandez drilled a 3-pointer, and on TD’s next possession, Josh Nisbet hit another deep ball to make it a 33-23 deficit.
With time running out in the third quarter, the Riverhawks had another chance to dip into their deficit, but a 3-pointer rimmed out, keeping it a 33-23 Outlaw lead entering the final period.
At the 7:20 mark of the fourth quarter, Nisbet hit another three-pointer to inch the Hawks to within 35-26, but Sister guard Ben Saba answered back with a pair of free throws to keep the lead at double digits.
On TD’s next possession, Eric Flores hit a running layup and a foul shot to make it a 37-29 score with 6:15 left in regulation.
TD hit one its final four free throws, had a turnover and misfired on its last three shots, as Sisters finished the game off from the free throw line.
Through four quarters, the Riverhawks hit a season-low 11 field goals, six from long range, and went 2 for 5 from the line.
With leading scorers Johnny Miller and Dakota Murr hampered with injury and sickness, the Hawk offense only got six points from the duo, three apiece.
Flores had a team-leading 11 points, Nisbet totaled six and Fernandez went for five points.
“We need to be active and moving around, not standing around watching the ball. If we can do that, we can get our offense going the way we want to,” Flores said. “If we keep moving around and run through our offense a couple of times and not let the defense clamp down on us, then we will be fine. We need to move the ball, dish it out, shoot those threes that we love so much and then come down and play defense.”
TD played Thursday night in Forest Grove, and heads to Astoria for the three-day Vince Dulcich Tournament starting on Tuesday, Dec. 27.
Morris is looking forward to getting his players back in a groove, without game cancellations and injuries disrupting continuity and flow.
The tournament road trip will help the team.
“I feel like when we are all together, with no injuries and we are 100 percent, we can be a very good team,” Fernandez said. “We are not very big, but we are fast and we can play well as a team. If we can connect, we can be a tough team.”
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