TDHS Boys Basketball Team Wins in a Thriller against Gorge Rival Hood River

The Dalles beats crosstown rival Hood River in a nail biter.

By Xavier Orion Olaez

The Dalles boys basketball team won a thriller on Thursday, Feb. 3 against Gorge rivals Hood River Valley, in its third league game of the season. It was a hard-fought game for both teams with an electric crowd and the Hawks coming out on top 65-62 in the final seconds.

The first quarter started off with a jam.

The referee threw the ball up for the tip-off, and it went straight to Hawks sophomore Henry Begay who passed it to Styles DeLeon who threw it down for a dunk.

The crowd went crazy.

The gym was packed on both sides of the stands as it was the most people I’ve seen at a Riverhawk basketball in a long time. The rest of the first quarter was a back and forth battle as both offenses excelled at scoring the ball.

At the end of the first quarter, the HRV Eagles led 21-17.

The Riverhawks dominated the second quarter. They scored 22 compared to the Eagles 14. The Hawks were able to get to the basket and score points in the paint. The Hawks also seemed to outrebound the Eagles in the first half which helped them on second-chance points. At the end of the first half, the Hawks led 39-35.

Both teams came out of halftime locked in on defense. Neither team could do much with the Hawks double-teaming the Eagles and HRV locking down the paint. At the end of the third quarter, the Hawks were up by 2 points and it was 50-48.

Senior Emmaunel Romero directing the offense while junior Styles DeLeon guards him.

The fourth quarter was a nail-biter. The Eagles took the lead early with a quick two scores, and the Hawks answered back to tie it up. It was then back and forth with both teams doing everything they could to score. Junior Styles DeLeon was fouled late and sank two clutch free throws to take the lead by three in the final seconds of the game.

HRV brought the ball down with 4 seconds left with Eagles senior Emmanuel Romero taking the final shot and just missing at the buzzer.

The Hawks won it.

I talked to Senior guard Jaxon Pullen after the game and asked him how it felt to beat HRV at home in such a close game.
”It felt great to beat them, especially in my senior year, and it was amazing to have all those people show up and be such a great crowd and support us; it was a big reason we won the game.”

Junior Center Braden Schwartz led the Hawks in scoring with 18 and Emmanuel Romero led the Eagles with 16 points.

The Hawks are now 2-2 in league games and hoping to keep the win streak going. The next game is against Redmond in an away game on Tuesday Feb 8th at 7 p.m.