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It was a dream season for a dream team. It provided more than its share of reasons to get excited. Finding a reason to cheer was easy. Some beautiful teamwork and individual efforts put together to make this one of the best teams Astoria basketball fans may have ever seen. The name of the game was fastbreak basketball, burning the opponent with the transition game from defense to offense made for many opponents to leave the gym wondering what happened.
It started with a tough preseason match up at Elma, Washington. They sported two players at 6’8” and 6’10” and five returning starters from the previous year. The Fishermen won a hard-fought contest 78-66.
After three more double digit wins, Astoria took on the top ranked team in 3-A, the Dallas Dragons in the first game of the Annual Dulcich Tournament. The home team came out on top of the eventual state champs 57-56 and went on to win the tournament. They then went down to Eugene to take on two more high powered teams in Creswell and Marist. The Fishermen came away from that weekend with two very impressive double digit wins.
This tough preseason competition really provided the Fishermen the confidence to overwhelm their league opponents. They won all 12 of their league games by double digits and averaging 19.25 points a victory. By winning their seed game, this made them the number one representative of the league to the state tournament. The league coaches chose four players to the first team All-League. They were seniors, Eric Viuhkola, Curt Miller, Mike Hogan, and junior Erron Viuhkola. Eric Viuhkola was chosen Player of the Year.
In Eugene, at the state tournament, the Fishermen entered rated number one and sporting a 22 game undefeated season. Their perfect record was not enough to scare off the challengers. They still had to prove themselves worthy of the ranking. After game one, the string was still going strong, defeating Pleasant Hill 70-60.
The second contest proved to be more of a challenge, the only blemish on this perfect season. Weak outside shooting and a defense that never got untracked, led to the first defeat to North Marion 59-66. No excuses, just a bad day.
Pride and success were enough to bring the team back on their feet. The Fishermen easily overpowered the remaining teams from North Valley and Junction City by 22 point wins, to take the fourth place trophy. Impressive showings reestablished the faith that this team was one of the best in the state. Maybe, the best! They ended this year with an overall record of 24-1. Which is the best ever recorded in the annals of the storied Astoria Fisherman basketball program.
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