By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Amity and Umatilla Boys Basketball team didn’t back down to the battle that they had created in the Crusader Classic Black Bracket Semi-Finals on Friday afternoon.
Loose balls. They each went after it. Physicality and intensity. They both matched each other on that front. Baskets. They traded each of them as well as it came down to one last basket in the contest.
The Warriors led the Vikings 68-65 with 8.2 seconds remaining in the game. Umatilla had the ball in their offensive half of the court looking for the tying shot, Amity looking for the stop.
“If it was going to 12 (Umatilla’s David Garcia), we were going to contest that very heavily. We knew it was going to 12 for the three, but if it was going down in the paint, we were going to let it go, let the ball roll out and let the time go down,” said Ethan Owings of the plan.
The Vikings went with the forward and turned to their big scorer in Garcia for the tie. The shot just missed its mark as Amity fought for the rebound and were able to close out the three-point victory to advance to the Bracket Championship Game.
“It was relieving knowjng that we can win one of those. One of my goals at the beginning of the year that I told (Amity Head Coach) Devin (McShane) was to win all these close games. So losing those three at the start was kind of devastating, but i feel like this is a turning point in knowing what to do in situations like this,” said Diego Dubay Lomeli.
“It was very energetic, especially at the end, hitting big shots, big free throws, stuff like that,” said Owings of the game.
The Warriors will play PacWest Conference rival Dayton for the Bracket Championship Saturday at 1:30pm at Salem Academy.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
