Boston Thompson of the Bulldogs goes up for the shot against the defense of Vale’s Jake DeLong. Thompson ended his night with nine points.By John L. Braese
The Enterprise
Cracking the top 10 in the state rankings this week, the Nyssa boys basketball team downed both Vale and Umatilla and remained a perfect 8-0 in 3A-5 Eastern Oregon League play.
Traveling to Vale last Friday, Feb. 5, the Bulldogs had no problems with the Vikings, leading from the beginning and cruising to a 56-33 victory.
As has occurred in the past, the Vikings got off to a slow start, only scoring four points in the first quarter. The Bulldogs had a 12-point first quarter, and a 14-point second quarter. They led at the half, 26-14.
The problems continued for the Viks as the Dawgs’ defense held Vale to single digits in the third quarter. As the fourth quarter started, Nyssa had a 15-point lead at 37-22.
The Bulldog bench proved to have the strongest quarter of the game, putting up 19 points.
Both Tanner Coble and Andres Chavez had 14 points to lead the Nyssa victory. Boston Thompson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore ended his game with nine points with most of those coming inside. In addition, the defense of Thompson and Gonzalez provided plenty of blocked Vale shots during the course of the night.
No Viking was able to hit double-digit scoring. Brock Mattos had nine points to lead the Vale scoring.
The Bulldogs followed up the win over Vale with a victory over the other EOL Vikings, from Umatilla. On Saturday, Feb. 6, the Bulldogs traveled to Umatilla and downed those Viks 51-35.
Meantime, Vale continued to have problems with EOL opponents, falling to Riverside 63-46 on Saturday, Feb. 6 on the road. On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Vikings lost to 4A Baker, 66-45.
Nyssa started this week with an 8-0 3A-5 Eastern Oregon League record and 14-10 overall. The Bulldogs are aiming for a 10-0 league record as they host Riverside (10-11 overall, 6-2 league) this Friday, Feb. 12.
Vale (3-19 overall, 0-8 league) hosted the 4A Ontario Tigers (5-14 overall) on Tuesday, Feb. 9, past press time. The Vikings will play their last game of the regular season Friday, Feb. 12, as they host Umatilla (10-13 overall, 2-6 overall).
Nyssa 12 14 11 19 56
Vale 4 10 8 11 33
Nyssa 20 4 4-7 56: Simpson 1 0 1-2 3; Thompson 4 0 1-2 9; Coble 7 0 0-0 14; McIntosh 0 1 0-0 3; Chavez 4 2 0-0 14; Fuentes 1 0 0-0 2; Melendez 1 0 0-0 2; Jones 0 1 0-0 3; Gonzalez 2 0 1-1 5. Vale 13 1 4-8 33: Bahena 0 0 2-2 2; Jacobs 1 1 0-0 5; DeLong 2 0 0-0 4; Gomez 2 0 0-0 4; Towers 3 0 1-4 7; McLaughlin 1 0 0-0 2; Mattos 4 0 1-2 9