Local high school hoops stars shine on 4A All-State teams
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER, UMATILLA & UNION COUNTIES — A bevy of local high school basketball stars represented Eastern Oregon well this past season.
For their hard work and efforts, many of those stars are now being honored as some of the top players in the state.
The Oregon Basketball Coaches Association released its 4A All-State teams, which is voted on by coaches across the Beaver State.
For the boys, the 4A state champion Baker squad dominated the all-state team. Junior Isaiah Jones was named the Class 4A Player of the Year, while his father and coach, Jebron Jones, was honored as Coach of the Year.
“I’m extremely blessed to have great coaches, players, parents and a wonderful community supporting the program. Everyone, players and coaches, worked extremely hard this season, especially when nobody was watching,” said Coach Jones. “The players were able to show off their hard work in front of fans and I was fortunate to be along for the ride. We are looking forward to seeing who is going to step up for next year.”
The younger Jones was also named All State First Team, on top of being named the top player in Oregon.
“It feels good, it’s pretty cool. I’m just happy we accomplished our goal of winning a state championship,” said Jones. “We put in the hard work, we were driven to win and we accomplished what we set out to do.”
Senior Paul Hobson was named to the All-State Second Team, and juniors Jaron Long and Jaxon Logsdon were Honorable Mention picks.
The Bulldogs completed a nearly perfect season by beating Junction City 75-58 in the state championship game March 9. Baker’s only loss in a 28-1 season was 59-51 at Cascade on Feb. 10. Baker avenged that loss by routing the Cougars 74-54 in a semifinal game at the state tournament on March 8.
On the girls side, Pendleton senior Hailey Schmidt was named All-State Second Team. Schmidt helped lead the Buckaroos to a winning record and to the first round of the playoffs.
La Grande’s Maezie Wilcox and Peyton Dagget, along with Baker’s Ashlyn Dalton were named to the honorable mention team.
