By PAUL MATLI
The Astorian
Local basketball teams are in the midst of their opening salvo.
After local hoopers took to the courts last Wednesday and Thursday to begin the season, they continued with more action on the weekend. The new look Warrenton boys were in action during their home opener, Knappa looked to rebound after their losses to Valley Catholic, Seaside girls continued their time in Eastern Oregon and Astoria traveled south to take on former Cowapa league rival Banks.
Astoria boys score a statement win
The Astoria boys basketball team was looking to keep their momentum going after knocking off Ilwaco of Washington State on Thursday evening.
On Saturday, the Fishermen traveled to Banks, where they were set to take on a talented Banks team featuring a couple of freshmen standouts and talented junior scorer Mason King. Astoria was looking to fare better than their Cowapa rival Seaside against the Braves. Seaside hosted Banks last Wednesday and saw the Braves put on a fourth quarter show to pull away.
This game for Astoria could be summed up best as the Quin and Cooper show.
Senior Quin Gohr and junior Cooper Jones were the standouts Saturday afternoon for the Fishermen. The duo started fast and hit Banks with all kinds of early first quarter punches as they combined to score 20 of Astoria’s 23 first quarter points.
In total, the duo combined for 46 of the Fishermen’s 59. Jones had 21, which included the biggest shot of the game for the Fishermen. With the shot clock winding down and the Fishermen up by only one, Jones hoisted up a fadeaway one footer that splashed the bottom of the net. This shot proved to be the dagger as Astoria held off a furious Banks comeback for a big time 59-55 early season victory over the preseason No. 9 Braves. Gohr had 25 in the game. In a matchup between him and King, Gohr won big as he forced the junior to foul out in essentially three quarters trying to defend him.
Next up for the Fishermen is a Tuesday home game against 4A stalwart Cascade. That game is set to begin at 7 p.m.
Astoria girls start fast, then shoot blanks
The second game and final game Saturday was the Astoria girls taking on 2024 3A state runner-up Banks.
Banks entered this season as the No. 2 team in 3A behind state champion Amity. With much of the Braves roster returning from last season this game was going to be a test for the new-look Fishermen.
Coming off a loss to Yamhill on Thursday, the Fishermen started off the game well behind their sophomore standout Kyah Gohr.
Despite facing double teams throughout the game, Gohr put on a dribbling exhibition in the first quarter to keep the Fishermen close. Gohr saw about four different defenders in the first quarter alone and had time to break their ankles. Her efforts kept the Fishermen in the game after the first, 11-9.
But the Braves adjusted their defense and started to double team Gohr even without the ball. Though the Fishermen were able to break the Braves press at will and create good shots in both transition and a half court setting, the shots just wouldn’t fall for the young team and Astoria fell behind 22-9 after an initial good start.
The second half was much of the same as the Fishermen ran good offensive sets and created quality looks, but unfortunately, the shots just didn’t fall. Banks would go on to take the game 49-20.
Astoria is set for their home opener this Tuesday against a top-five team in 4A from last season. The Cascade Cougars bring 1,000 career point scorer Olivia Bennett and other talented scorers to The Brickhouse, so this will be the young Fishermen’s most challenging game yet.
Warrenton boys take care of business
New team, no problem for the Warrenton Warriors.
After having to replace much of last season’s roster, the Warriors look good in the early season.
A Friday night blowout over Gaston and a followup victory over Colton on Saturday pushed Warrenton’s record to 2-1.
The Warriors put up 82 points on Friday night against the Greyhounds to win 82-49 behind 22 points from junior guard Ryan Palmer. Ryker Thornton joined him in double figures with 14, while Jackson Simonsen had nine.
Saturday was much of the same for Warrenton as Palmer once again wrecked shop against Colton. Palmer led the team in scoring for the second straight game and Thornton had another hot shooting night. Though the Warriors started slow, the second half was much better as the Warriors got contributions from almost every player on their roster.
With the Warriors having just three seniors, this team will be relying on their strong junior class of Palmer, Thornton, Eli and Aaron Neahring and Tanner Nichols to provide much of the scoring and strong play.
Seaside girls wrap up tournament play
The Seaside girls headed home Saturday morning after going 1-2 in the Crook County Invite.
Facing some of the best that 4A and 5A has to offer, the Seagulls got a good gauge on where they sit in the early season.
A nine point loss to a talented Baker team was the game Seaside cared about the most as the next two games were against 5A opponents.
The Seagulls got blown out by 5A Redmond 68-34, then blew out 5A team Bend by a score of 69-38. Seaside is set for its home opener this Friday against Banks. With the Braves ranked No. 2 in the 3A coaches poll and Seaside ranked No. 6 in 4A, this game figures to be much closer than Banks’s game against Astoria this past Saturday.
For those who want to get a look at the Seagulls, the game will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Knappa outlasts Santiam
Both Friday night games at the Knappa gym followed a similar script.
Taking on Santiam, the Lady Loggers got things started with a 32-28 victory. The teams engaged in a classic defensive battle and Knappa was able to get one more stop than the Wolverines. This was the girls first win of 2025 and moves them to 1-1 on the season.
Senior Mylie Lempea had another good scoring game for the Loggers as she had 14 of the team’s 32. Dahlia Koeppen had five and Kate Maher had four to help the Loggers to victory.
The boys once again played the night-cap and made sure to send the fans home happy.
This game also had a finishing score of just four points, 69-65, in favor of the Loggers. The victory moved Knappa to 1-1 on the young season.
Next up for the Loggers is another home game against Open Door Christian Academy on Monday, a road game against Naselle on Wednesday and a home game against Crosshill Christian on Saturday.