Hermiston senior guard Ramiro Alatorre (24) was the Bulldogs' playmaker from the onset, scoring multiple baskets in every quarter en route to a 31-point performance in the varsity squad's 69-59 win over the HHS alums on Friday night.

By David Bashore

Herald sports editor

Hermiston The Bulldog varsity squad overcame a built-in disadvantage to top their predecessors in the fourth annual Hermiston Alumni Basketball Game on Friday night.

The alumni might have had physical and mental edges in the game, but they could not overcome a 22-11 fourth-quarter spurt by the current varsity, which led the present Bulldogs to a 69-59 win.

Senior point guard Ramiro Alatorre stole the show on what was a night featuring Bulldog players of the past and present, scoring a game-high 31 points to lead his team to the win.

Alumnus Jake Burns, who like Alatorre wore the number 24 for the evening, matched up with his counterpart in the early stages and finished with 16 points.

“I think we just ran out of gas,” Burns, who graduated in 2004, said. “But it’s always fun to come back and play in this game, even though we want to win it.”

The game carried an exhibition feel to it despite the result counting toward the present varsity squad’s record, something which frustrated head coach Larry Usher.

“I think the weekend may be spent re-evaluating our scheduling process, because our kids showed that scheduling the alumni game does nothing for our basketball team,” Usher said. “We tell our kids that every time they lace up the shoes and put on the uniform, they have to play hard. They laced up the shoes and put on the uniform and didn’t play hard because they were playing against guys who used to wear the same uniform as them, and that’s unacceptable.”

Alatorre and Sam Grogan were singled out as players who pressed because of the relaxed atmosphere, trying perhaps to do too much an assessment both players accepted was true.

“I didn’t try to take over, but there were times I tried to make things happen,” Alatorre said. “I probably should have passed the ball around a little more.”

“I wasn’t really focused, and I force things and take bad shots when I’m not focused,” Grogan said. “I was getting frustrated because nothing was falling, but I don’t play well when I force things.”

The game did not feature Mark and Paul Carollo, both playing at Eastern Oregon University this season, but it did feature a pair of last year’s seniors in Ricardo Amezcua and Eric Zwiefelhofer.

The transition to opposite sides in the alumni game was a strange one, Amezcua admitted.

“It was a little weird,” Amezcua said of donning the away uniform in what used to be his home gym. “But this game is special and it means a lot to us. Guys look forward to it every year.”

For the current Bulldogs, all that needs to be looked forward to is a three-day tournament in Redmond next week.

“Hopefully this doesn’t carry over to Redmond,” Usher said. “Hopefully we’ll get out there and play.”