January 30, 2008

The Horizon Hawks boys basketball team survived another close call with a 63-58 win over Crook County to keep their perfect season intact on Friday, while the Cascade Locks Pirates dropped their sixth straight game in a 63-43 loss to Sherman County.

The Hawks were up by as much as 15 late in the third quarter against Crook County only to see the Warriors storm back with a 26-point effort in the fourth quarter.

However, 22 points from Josh Larson, 19 from Bobby Cofrances and 17 from Adam Ohlson was enough to stem the tide. Larson also chipped in with 11 rebounds.

Crook County’s Aaron Phillips led all scorers with 30 points, with 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

“We took it for granted that we would win this game,” Horizon coach Ron Haynes said. “Until the fourth we controlled the game when they began launching three pointers.”

The win moved the Hawks to 19-0 on the season, and moved their magic number for clinching the regular season Big Sky West title to three.

Meanwhile, a Cascade Locks team battling illness traveled to Sherman County on Friday night and were left feeling even worse after a 20-point defeat.

The Pirates were so devastated by illness and injury that Pirates coach Phil Nolin insisted that the JV game be kept to three quarter so he could have some of his JV roster available for the varsity contest.

That didn’t help matters for the Pirates, who found themselves down 35-17 by halftime.

The Pirates also lost starting forward Ben Russell to an injury to his face in the first half.

The Pirates put together a small run in the fourth quarter but it was not enough to pull them out of the hole.

In Big Sky girls basketball action, Horizon was edged out by Central Christian 40-38.

The Pirates had even worse luck against Sherman County, falling 70-23 to the Huskies thanks to an overwhelming assault by the Husky offense.

Both the Hawks and the Pirates had their Saturday contests scrubbed due to the weather.

The Hawks were scheduled to play at Ione; that game has been moved to today at Ione.

The Pirates were scheduled to play at Dufur. No makeup date has been announced yet.

The Hawks and the Pirates were scheduled to meet for the second time this season at Wy’east Middle School on Tuesday. In their first meeting of the season, Cascade Locks won the girls contest, while Horizon took the boys.