Rangers riding high into hoops

Added to that, the Ranger will start this season without graduated all-league standout players Bryson Caldwell, Caleb Morris and Jake Kortge, and Levi Morris transferred to another school.

The football team is also coming off its seventh state championship on Nov. 28 in a 36-32 triumph over Crane, so the program will start the regular season behind the curve, so to speak, so through December and early January, the Rangers will have seven non-league games, along with a three-day tournament to work out the kinks before the start of Big Sky Conference action on Jan. 8.

“Losing the seniors from last year and Levi Morris to transfer, it’s like a whole different team as far as personnel. Different strengths and weaknesses,” said Dufur head coach Tony White. “I love the challenge of switching gears, so this year will be a transition for sure. They have a lot of potential and they work very well together as we can see from their football season. I’m just ready to get going.”

Returning two-year starter Bailey Keever brings the most experience to the roster from the point guard position, so his leadership, experience and skill set will be relied upon heavily to bring along a handful of underclassmen.

Coming back from an injury-plagued sophomore campaign is junior guard Connor Uhalde, a former starter back in his freshman year.

Kolbe Bales (5-11), who was Dufur’s sixth man last year for most of the season, is coming back bigger and stronger, so coach White is looking for the forward to have his breakout year.

After that trio, Dufur will be small, speedy and young, with some varsity experience, but as juniors, will be put in a much more significant role.

Ethan Wetherbee, Travis Lucas, Ben Anderson are three juniors and sophomore Curtis Crawford will be pushing for added minutes at the varsity level.

Freshmen Tabor McLaughlin, Tanner Masterson, Anthony Thomas, Derek Frakes and Cole Kortge will be anchoring the future of the Ranger basketball program.

“I am very excited about this coming year,” White said. “We are very young, but there is no quit in these kids and it will be another fun ride in the Big Sky.”

For a program that went 5-18 in the 2012-2013 season, the Rangers have gone 32-19 overall and 15-7 in league play in two seasons under White, 18-10 and 11-3 last year.

Offensively, the Rangers jumped from 57.1 points a game to 59.2 in the 2014-15 season, but will have to replace at least 40 points a game contributed by the Morris duo, Kortge and Caldwell.

But, there are solid pieces in place to make up for those personnel losses, but without some of its previous size, White will draw up some sets to better utilize his team’s mid-range and outside game.

“Offensively, we will be trying to play to our strengths with ball penetration and tempo,” said the former Big Sky Coach of the Year.

On defense, Dufur boasted the eight-team Big Sky’s best numbers with 44.0 points surrendered per game.

One telltale sign of the Rangers’ 2014-15 success was when they allowed 40 points or fewer a game – When that occurred, they were a perfect 13-0.

With a smaller nucleus in place, White can attack teams defensively with some traps, pressures and matchup zones in an effort to put the opposition on their heels.

“With the team we have, there isn’t a lot of height, so we will be focusing on playing very intense defense and trying to generate more of a full-court game versus maybe more of a half court approach we have had the last couple years,” White said.

Just as every coach has discussed, the Big Sky Conference will bring out the best or worst in many teams on any given night.

White called Sherman the favorites to win districts, especially after its 2014-15 Baker City state playoff run, with its potent returning group, a solid point guard, long-range shooting and some upstart newcomers.

South Wasco County, Horizon Christian, Arlington and Ione have the early looks to be highly-touted contenders as well.

“After Sherman, I think it’s fairly wide open,” White said. “You can’t ever count out SWC because Jim does such a good job with his kids and they have a couple key returners from last year’s team that made a good showing at districts. Horizon lost some good kids and their head coach, so they are an unknown, but have built a tradition of success and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a great season. Arlington had great numbers this last summer and played well at the Sherman tournament (played this past June), so they could be there challenging too.”

Although still kind of an unknown based off a successful football season, White is not discounting the many questions surrounding his varsity squad.

He will not offer any excuses however, saying that his personal expectations are to punch a Baker City state tournament ticket every season he is on the sidelines.

“Based on how hard my kids work, I thinks it’s realistic to say that we don’t lay down for any team and we win games against teams with more talent because we have heart,” White said. “I think we have proven that the last two years. There are no free passes when you come play the Rangers.”

Dufur kicks off its regular season at 7 p.m. on Friday at Perrydale.

After that matchup, the next scheduled game is at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5 in Damascus.