January 15, 2008

The Hood River Valley boys basketball team pulled the doormat out from under the Reynolds Raiders on Tuesday. The Eagles jumped on the Raiders early and never let up in a 60-52 win.

The Eagles had been mired in a nine-game losing streak, including a 100-40 loss to Sheldon on Dec. 27, and the win gave them their first league victory since rejoining the Mount Hood Conference last season, and also got them out of the conference basement for the first time this year.

“I am extremely proud of the way we responded to every comeback effort by Reynolds,” HRV coach Zach Pauls said. “Every time they made a charge we got a big stop and a basket.”

The Eagles were led by an offensive explosion from Andy Kennedy, who scored 31 points. That effort nearly equaled that of the top three scorers from Reynolds combined.

The Eagles jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, and then kept scoring from there. Kennedy scored 21 of his points in the first half, to help the Eagles to a five- point halftime lead. In the third, Reynolds used a 20-point burst to get the lead back, but Jordan Bryant, AJ Olson, and Travis Carratt helped to keep the Eagles in the game with contributions on offense and defense. In the fourth Kennedy came up with eight more points to put the Eagles in front for good.

“I am happy for this group of guys,” Pauls said.

With the victory the Eagles improve to 1-1 in league play, 2-10 overall, while Reynolds falls to 0-2 in league, 0-11 overall.

The win allowed the Eagles to finish a two-game road swing on a high note, and they were scheduled to host Centennial on Friday and Central Catholic on Tuesday.