The Grant Union girls basketball team made a complete 180 last weekend.

The Grant Girls picked up two big wins on the road to give the team some much need energy.

They beat Umatilla 45-32 on Friday and Riverside 51-43 on Saturday, Jan. 25. Before the weekend Grant Union was 0-3 in Eastern Oregon League play and 4-8 overall.

The Grant Girls’ new record of 2-3 put them a single game behind third-place Nyssa in the EOL. The top three teams from league move on to the playoffs.

The Grant Girls now face Nyssa in their next game at home at about 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1. If Grant Union wins, and both teams lose on Saturday, then the Grant Girls will move into third place. Grant Union has to face second-place Vale on Saturday, but Nyssa has to host first-place Burns.

“We’re back in the playoff hunt,” Grant Union Coach Ryan Carpenter said. “No one expected it. We were down 0-3, but we played the best teams in league to start the season. It shows we can be and are a good basketball team.”

Nyssa was able to control much of the last meeting between the two teams, and took the game 57-31. However, it will be Nyssa making the drive to face Grant Union and a crowded gym next time. The Grant Girls have also improved significantly since their last meeting.

A key to their success will be turnovers. Grant Union had 38 turnovers against Nyssa last game, and 32 against Burns, but the Grant Girls only had 17 against Umatilla on Friday.

“We’re starting to put it in the hole and take care of the ball,” Carpenter said, with practice we’ll get a win.”

The Pros also scored the most points, 45, they have in any EOL game on Friday. They then broke that mark by six points on Saturday. Their previous high had been 31 points against Nyssa.

Sabrina Hoffman led Grant Union with 12 points against Umatilla and 19 points against Riverside. She also had eight rebounds on Friday. Katelyn Page had nine points against Umatilla and 10 against Riverside. Sharon Houpt rounded out the leaders with seven points against Umatilla and nine against Riverside.

Pro boys drop twoThe Grant Union boys basketball team had a disappointing weekend, losing two straight games. They fell 60-43 to Umatilla on Friday and 71-39 to Riverside on Saturday. Austin Ranft led the team in points on Friday with 18, all on 3-pointers. He continued his streak and led the team with 12 points on Saturday.

The Pros kept it close and only trailed Riverside 20-19 going into halftime. However, they were held to four points in the third quarter and gave up 18 to let the game slip away.

“Saturday we played pretty well in the first half,” Grant Union coach Brad Smith said. “In the second half they hit shots and we missed shots. Then we spent the night playing catch up. It was a rough weekend. We had a long road trip.”