McKenzie Sports Report - January 16

McKenzie Varsity Sports Schedule This Week

The McKenzie Varsity Boys Basketball teams travels to Siletz Valley on Tuesday, January 14, for a game scheduled to tip-off at 5:30 pm. There will be no Varsity Girls game this night, as Siletz Valley does not sponsor a Girls team this season.

The Eagles host Triangle Lake on Thursday, January 16. A Junior Varsity Boys game will start at 4:00 pm., followed by the Boys Varsity game at 5:30 pm and the Girls Varsity game at 7:00 pm.

The McKenzie teams travel to Mapleton on Tuesday, January 21. A Junior Varsity Boys game will start at 4:00 pm, the Boys Varsity game at 5:30 pm and the Varsity Girls game at 7:00 pm.

McKenzie Boys Split Last Week Rout Crow 48-21, Routed By Eddyville 21-56

It was one of those weeks. Eagle pride was riding high with a 48-21 rout of the Crow/City Christian Cougars, on the road at Crow last Tuesday, January 7. McKenzie rolled into Cougar Country sporting a 2 game win streak (following a 10 game losing skid) and a new sense of pride and purpose. The Eagles were tied at the top of the Mt. West League regular season standings with Eddyville Charter and Mapleton.

McKenzie Head Coach Neil Barrett's inspired team (also the first night of new travel duds) took care of business with the victory and set up an All Eagle showdown in Finn Rock the following Thursday night. Champagne's still not legal in high school for solid reasons, but you can't blame the River natives for celebrating. It has been eleven years (2013-14 season) since a McKenzie Boys Basketball team has won three successive games. High time for too long so give this season's Eagle team due credit for turning the corner. But, bubble reality usually rears up, or should we say floats up and then, Pops!

And pop it did last Thursday night when Eddyville Charter arrived from the Coast Range. Those other Eagles took care of their own business last Tuesday by holding off a tenacious Mapleton Sailor crew at home. Eddyville Charter met the Challenge from the Siuslaw, defeating Mapleton in a hotly contested game, 44-41, and dropping the Sailors from the Conference lead shared with McKenzie and Eddyville. So, two days hence, Eddyville arrived in Finn Rock with a bit of swagger of their own and upon the opening game tip off, methodically went about bursting the local bubble! Eddyville Charter held school and defeated McKenzie 56-21.

The Eagles of Eddyville are now perched at the top of the MWL alone with a perfect 4-0 record followed by McKenzie at 3-1 and Mapleton a half game back at 2-1.

McKenzie Boys take to the road on Tuesday for a game with Siletz Valley (1-3) and the Warriors appear to be a similar team as McKenzie in that they have played most of their contests closely, except for Eddyville where they lost 39-69. If McKenzie hopes to stay in the hunt for the MWL title and a winning season, the game with the Warriors is one they need to refocus on and pick up a W.

Then, once again it will be hosting one of the top MWL rival teams, Triangle Lake, 2-2 currently, on Thursday. The order of the moment is always take of first business first, so make the long ride home Tuesday from Siletz enjoyable. McKenzie has not defeated the Lakers on the court since the 2019-20 season, a 56-46 victory at home. Don't put away the bubble machine quite yet!

Back to the Crow contest, McKenzie was led in scoring by Will Meister who finished with 14 points. Meister sunk 4-7 from the three-point line and made 5-8 two-point attempts. Masonn Burton also shot very well from the field, successfully hitting 6-13 two shot attempts and 1-1 from the three point stripe, finishing with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. The only other Eagle to score in double figures was Rhys Hamlow with 11 points. Hamlow led his team in rebounds along with teammate Noah Prado, each securing 7 boards. Amir Enfield scored 7 points and Allen Acevedo added 3 points and 6 rebounds for the Eagles.

McKenzie dominated the backboard at Crow, out-rebounding the Cougars 38-14. Both teams committed a ton of turnovers, the Eagles 21 and the Cougars 25.

Versus Eddyville, McKenzie's shooting percentage took a hike South. The home Eagles shot 9-30 from 2 point range, 1-7 from the three-point line and made just 2-9 from the charity stripe. That production won't win you many, if any, games. Throw in 33 turnovers and 12 less rebounds than your opponent (18-30) and well, it's back to the basics.

Despite the doom and gloom report, though, there were some positives. McKenzie played hard all night, and attempted to throw a wrinkle in Eddyville's game plan with the full court press that helped with the previous three games. It worked initially and McKenzie was down just 13-6 in the first quarter. Eddyville decided at that point to show off their own full court pressure defense and McKenzie suddenly found itself flustered with back court time calls, traps in the corners, bad pass decisions, etc., all designed by the Eddyville pressure. The visiting Eagles outscored their Finn Rock hosts 17-0 in the second quarter and the rout was spelled out clearly.

Eddyville didn't take it's foot off the pedal in the third quarter, easily pressuring a McKenzie press break up the sidelines into disaster, meanwhile outscoring their opponent 16-2, establishing a 46-14 lead going into the fourth quarter. Both teams emptied their benches in the final quarter and Eddyville finished icing the game with 10 points scored in the period to McKenzie's 7 points. Final: Eddyville Charter 56, McKenzie 21.

Masonn Burton finished as the top scorer for McKenzie with 7 points and 2 blocks and he shared the team lead on rebounds with Jacob Norlund, each 4 boards. Will Meister added 5 points and a blocked shot, and Allen Acevedo finished with 4 points and 3 assists. Jacob Peek and Norlund each added 2 points and Aytan Munoz-Brown sunk 1 free-throw.

Lady Eagles Battle Better But Bummer, Drop Two

The McKenzie Lady Eagles Basketball team competed hard this past week against Crow/City Christian on the road and again against Eddyville Charter at home. Over in the Land of the Cougars, the Eagles gave it a fine go, but ultimately lost to Crow/City First Christian 44-54. The Cougars victory was their first MWL win of the 2024-25 season and at 1-2, they are a game ahead of 0-3 McKenzie.

Eddyville Charter traveled to Finn Rock on the following Thursday and found themselves a game, despite the final score. McKenzie came off the bench at the opening tip ready to rumble and earned a slim lead, 7-6, with 2:19 remaining in the first quarter. Five of McKenzie's points came from the free-throw line as Eddyville treated their host to fourteen free-throw shot attempts in that opening quarter. The visiting Eagles did get lined out a bit better in the closing seconds of the quarter, running off a 7-0 scoring streak to lead McKenzie 12-7 to start the second quarter. Eddyville slowly built the lead out in the second quarter and at halftime broke for the locker rooms holding a 24-12 edge.

At the juncture in the game, it looked as if Eddyville was going to blow out the contest, as all McKenzie's second quarter points came from the charity stripe. Following the halftime break, nobody was arguing for the McKenzie defense and Eddyville certainly was happy the way the game was progressing. With 2:28 remaining in the third quarter, the visitors held a comfortable 31-20 lead. But somebody put a spark in the McKenzie tank and shots started to fall in.

Suddenly the Eagles from Finn Rock had themselves a rally. The home crowd woke up as well and when the horn sounded the end of the quarter, we had ourselves a game. Tied at 31 all and something felt like a bit of the past had shook off the dust and stood up.

But alas, some good things do pass and so did McKenzie's brave rally. Eddyville took the quarter break to talk about it and then came out and outscored McKenzie 19-0 to formalize the rout. McKenzie did not score until 4:50 remained in the game couldn't climb any closer than 17 points the rest of the way. Eddyville Charter easily coasted the rest of the way, defeating their hosts 59-42.

With the win, the Coastal Eagles improved to 2-1 and a tie with Triangle Lake for second in MWL plays, behind 2-0 Mapleton. McKenzie fell to 0-3 in MWL play.

For the game on Thursday, Liliana Jones led her team with 20 points scored, although the Eagle sophomore did not score in the final quarter. Freshman Claire Weiss finished with 19 points and junior Linn Goette added 3 points from the post. No other player scored for McKenzie.