The Brookings-Harbor High School cheerleading squad honored their seniors at Tuesday night’s home basketball game with flowers and a performance of their upcoming OSAA state championship competition.

The Bruins will travel to Portland to compete in the competition on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Memorial Coliseum. 

The competition is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and the Bruins are slated to perform seventh.

Iva Hart shoots a jumper in Tuesday’s victory. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

Lady Bruins struggle in 41-33 victory 

The Brookings-Harbor High School varsity girls basketball team was limited Tuesday night to just 41 points as they defeated the visiting Lady Bulldogs by 7.

The high pressure defense that marks the girls’ basketball team was notably absent on Tuesday due to a shortage of eligble players on the Bruin bench.

“We’re really thin right now,” Head Coach Chris Schofield said. “This is the second game in a row we’ve had to play with just seven girls.

Bruin forward Alex Pate tries to control the ball and get past two Trojan defenders to the basket. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

Eleven Bruins scored Friday night as Brookings-Harbor High School roared past Douglas 74-51 to improve its Far West League boys basketball record to 2-3.

Coach Jon Young’s team led by nine points at halftime, but turned up the defensive pressure in the third quarter to put the game away. Brookings-Harbor outscored the visitors 21-7 in that period.

“We like to try to increase the tempo,” Young said, referring to the full-court press that forced several Trojan turnovers.

Mallory McDonald goes up for two of her 11 points in Friday night’s victory against Douglas. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

Brianna Juarez hit a running field goal and the following free throw late in the game Friday night to help Brookings-Harbor High School outlast Douglas 43-34 in girls basketball.

The senior forward’s three-point play pushed her team to a 38-30 lead with 2 minutes, 40 seconds left in the game.

Douglas followed with a pair of free throws, but Brookings-Harbor’s Courtney Kay sank a layup with 2:10 remaining to push the lead back to eight points.

 Fishing report 

for January 20-26

When the going gets tough, the tough get plunking. In between storms, anglers who donned rain gear and braved high water were able to put the pedal to the metalheads last week on the Rogue and Chetco rivers.

Senior captain Chase Davis rolls for a strike during the Bruins competition. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The Brookings-Harbor High School bowling team braved rain, wind and snow to travel to Grants Pass on Sunday to compete in their second-to-last tournament before they compete at districts, and while the varsity team was unable to adapt to the changing lane conditions, the JV squad took home their third first-place finish for the season.

“The lane conditions changed and we were unable to keep up with the changing conditions,” Head Coach Randy Scruggs said. “As you start struggling you try harder. And the harder you try, the harder it gets.

“You’re really going to bowl your best when you’re relaxed, and we weren’t.”

Bruin wrestler Isaac Sanders, top, uses an ankle pick to drive his opponent to the ground as he takes fifth place at the Eagle Point Invitational. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The Brookings-Harbor High School wrestling team traveled to Eagle Point on Saturday to participate in the Eagle Point Invitational wrestling tournament and came home with just 15 team points – due in part, according to Head Coach Dave Freeman, to not being able to field competitors in nine of 15 weight classes. The Bruins had no one available to wrestle in the 106, 113, 120, 126, 138, 170, 182, 195 and 285-pound weight classes due to illness, injury and disciplinary issues.

“We only had five kids in the varsity bracket,” Freeman said. “Cole’s not here because he sick and he would have been in the finals, but it’s not just about Cole. We need to improve as a team.”

According to Freeman, bad choices, in addition to early season injuries, have reduced the team numbers.

The ultimate you-can-do-no-wrong plunking setup created by Larry Ellis. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

Fishing report for 

January 13-19

Late Thursday afternoon, I parked my car toward the end of the Brookings south jetty and watched, in awe, as a river monster named Chet spewed out log after log after log, moving 100-foot redwoods around as if they were toothpicks, cleaning the teeth of the jagged jetty boulders inside its mouth.

During steelhead season, the Chetco is always interesting after a major blowout. The river had crested to 53,700 cubic feet per second on Thursday. This kind of overwhelming raw power is strong enough to change the course of a river.