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NHS thumps Tualatin; remains
undefeated in Pac-9
Minus three starters, Bucks fall
NHS falls to 0-2 in Pac-9 with loss
at Forest Grove
No. 6-ranked Bucks falter against
Eagles
Tigers
move to 4-1;
drill Vikings |
The NHS boys basketball team improves to 4-1
with Tuesday's victory over Forest Grove |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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 The Newberg High School boys basketball team raced to its best start
in recent history Tuesday when the Tigers drilled Forest Grove, 64-36.
Jeremy Quinby, a senior, scored 16 points and added eight rebounds and two
steals in the win. Senior Ian Roholt chipped in nine points and two rebounds. Junior
Jordan Burger added 10 points, three rebounds and three steals, while his elder brother,
Justin, scored eight points to go along with his five rebounds and three steals. Junior
Brad Johnson added seven points and senior point guard Josh Brown scored two points to go
along with his two steals and five rebounds.
“I thought Josh Brown set the tone for us, defensively,” said NHS
coach Rod Cook. “He was on the ball all night long and he (forced) their point guard
into quite a few turnovers. Just having him out there (playing defense) like that is
contagious and all of the other guys fed off of it.”
Newberg outrebounded Forest Grove 27-13 and forced 21 Forest Grove turnovers
while committing 13, including four in the second half.
The Tigers struggled early in the game and found themselves down 13-11 at the
end of the first quarter. Cook said playing well in the beginning of games hasn’t
been a strong suit for the Tigers this season.
“Right now we’re struggling coming out of the gate,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s that we’re trying too hard to try and do too
many things at one time. But whatever it is, we’re coming out flat and it’s been
that way every game.”
From the second quarter on, however, Newberg controlled the Vikings,
outscoring Forest Grove 13-3 in the second quarter and 18-6 in the third quarter. Newberg
also hammered the Vikings in the fourth quarter 22-12.
Cook said it was in the second quarter where things turned around for the
Tigers.
“In the huddle in our timeout, our kids were all talking about what we
needed to do by playing defense and we came out and did that,” he said.
The Tigers were also helped out by Forest Grove, which went more than eight
minutes between the second and third quarters without a score. In the fourth quarter the
Vikings went scoreless for more than five minutes.
Forest Grove was predicted by many Pac-9 coaches to finish in the bottom of
the league this season, but Cook said that doesn’t matter.
“In this league, on any given night, somebody can beat somebody,”
he said. “You can’t overlook anybody. Forest Grove is going to get some wins.
They’re going to beat some people that are up high in the standings, but we’ve
just got to come and play one game at a time and so far, I think we’ve been
doing that.”
The Tigers’ 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-9 Conference record has
already doubled its win total from a year ago; they went 2-22 overall in 2002-2003.
“What we went through last year, I look it as a fluke,” Cook said.
“It was a snowball effect. One thing led to another and to another and we were never
able to pull ourselves out of that hole. But this group of seniors have set the tone since
last spring that they were not going to allow that to happen. Everyone of them have come
out this year and shown that they’re just going to come out and play hard. The wins
and losses will take care of themselves if we play our style of basketball.” |
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From Dec. 20,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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