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Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Tuesday, March 14, 2017 Men’s College Basketball NFL Arizona beats Oregon for Pac-12 title Peterson visits Seahawks By JOHN MARSHALL Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Arizona stayed resilient while its best player was suspended, fought through injuries, kept finding ways to win. That composure helped the Wildcats share the Pac-12 regu- lar-season crown with Oregon and withstand a furious rally by the Ducks in the conference title game. Now they’re Pac-12 Tour- nament champions and have a decent shot to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. Led by ever-calm soph- omore guard Allonzo Trier, No. 7 Arizona outlasted No. 5 Oregon 83-80 on Saturday night in the Pac-12 final to enter the NCAA Tournament with a surge of momentum. “It has never been easy for us,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “We have dealt with adversity and obstacles as much as almost any group that I’ve been a part of, and yet we’ve been able to continue to climb and grow.” Arizona (30-4) played superb defense while building a 14-point lead and shot 58 percent overall to answer when Oregon made a big push in the second half. Trier was the catalyst. He sat out the first 19 games of the season after being suspended for performance-en- hancing drugs and got better as the season progressed. Trier hit some big shots when the Ducks charged and calmly made two free throws in the final 17 seconds after Arizona missed the previous four, sealing the Wildcats’ second Pac-12 title in three years. “I don’t think we had the picture painted like this. Everything looked so down,” said Trier, the tournament MVP after scoring 23 points in the title game. “But just extremely proud to be a part of this team, AP Photo/John Locher Oregon’s Dillon Brooks shoots around Arizona’s Keanu Pinder during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Pac-12 men’s tourna- ment Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Las Vegas. extremely happy to be able to play basketball again and do something I really loved that was taken away from me for quite an extended period of time.” Oregon (29-5) got bad news before tipoff, learning senior forward Chris Boucher is out for the season with a torn ACL sustained in the semifinals against California. The Ducks struggled in the first half before rallying in a dazzling second half by both teams. They couldn’t stop the Wildcats, though. Dillon Brooks carried Oregon through the early woes and finished with 25 points. Tyler Dorsey added 23 for the Ducks, who made 15 of 29 shots in the second half. “I love the way our guys battled back,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “Our guys really, really battled back, put ourselves in a position. We just didn’t get it done.” Oregon ran over Arizona in the team’s only meeting during the regular season, hitting 16 3-pointers in an 85-58 victory that was never close. The Wildcats got one dose of payback in the Pac-12 semi- finals by avenging an emotional regular-season loss to No. 3 UCLA and were hoping to do it again against the Ducks. Oregon had a setback before the game even started with the loss of Boucher, the versatile 6-foot-10 forward who was the team’s third-leading scorer and the Pac-12’s leading shot blocker. “I just feel really bad for Chris,” Altman said. “He’s a wonderful young man and it’s really hard for him. It was a big blow to our team this morning.” Arizona took advantage of Boucher’s absence by attacking the rim, hitting 13 of 26 shots to lead 35-29 at halftime. Arizona continued to hit shots and disrupt Oregon’s offense, pushing the lead to 14 in the opening 4½ minutes of the second half. The Ducks finally started to make shots and disrupted Arizona’s offense with full- court pressure, whittling away at the lead. Oregon pulled to 79-77 on Jordan Bell’s layup with 26 seconds left, but Trier closed it out with his free throws. “I think we scored enough,” Dorsey said. “It just came down to the defensive end.” BIG PICTURE Arizona took down top-10 teams in consecutive games and is playing well at both ends of the floor at just the right time. Oregon is still a dangerous team, as this game showed, but the loss of Boucher could be huge for its hopes of a deep NCAA Tournament run. KAVELL’S CONTRIBU- TION The loss of Boucher meant the Ducks would have to get a bigger contribution from Kavell Bigby-Williams. The 6-foot-11 junior came through against Arizona, grabbing six rebounds while playing solid defense in 14 minutes. By DAVE CAMPBELL Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS — Adrian Peterson visited the Seattle Seahawks, while his original team in Minne- sota hosted fellow free agent running back Eddie Lacy. There’s still a path for Peterson to return to the Vikings, but the signs of his potential departure haven’t stopped popping up. Peterson was at Seahawks headquarters on Sunday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the details weren’t being made public. This was Peterson’s first in-person meeting with a team since the Vikings declined their option on his contract for 2017 and made him a free agent for the first time. The Vikings have stated their openness to re-signing their all-time leading rusher for the right price, but they entered the offseason with bigger priorities and kicked it off by adding two new starters on a beleaguered offensive line in free agent tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers. That said, they’ll probably need to sign a veteran running back at some point with Jerick McKinnon currently the only one on the roster of significance. So their interest in Lacy was telling. The Seahawks have their eyes on Lacy, too, after the 26-year-old’s 2016 season with the Green Bay Packers was shortened by an ankle injury. SportsTrust Advisors, the agency representing Lacy, announced Thursday on Twitter that he would visit the Seahawks, Vikings and Packers in that order over the following four days. Lacy rushed for 1,100 yards in 2013 and 2014, his first two seasons in the league, before falling off. With Thomas Rawls and C.J. Prosise in place, the Seahawks have youth and potential at running back, but with Rawls missing 12 of 36 games over his first two years to ankle and leg injuries their depth isn’t necessarily sound. With Jamaal Charles and Latavius Murray also on the list with Peterson and Lacy, plenty of high-pro- file ballcarriers remain available following the initial frenzy on the market for more in-demand positions. Not only has the league evolved to the point where premiums are on quarterbacks, left tackles, pass rushers and cornerbacks, but the 2017 draft class for running backs is one of the strongest in years. So there’s no obvious rush for teams like the Seahawks and Vikings to snatch one up this week. There’s probably no hurry for Peterson to pick a team, either. He has shared on Twitter multiple videos of his workouts in recent days, perhaps trying to remind the football world that he’s still in exemplary shape with his 32nd birthday looming later this month. GAMBLING: Casinos say more legal gambling good for the game Continued from 1B in more parts of the country, says the NCAA’s stance is “strange” and “hypocritical.” ‘’The other word is, it’s dangerous,” Freeman said. The AGA, the lobbying arm for commercial and tribal casinos, believes the more regulatory eyeballs placed on the games if gambling became legal in more places, the less chance there is of point shaving and other forms of tampering, the likes of which have hit the college game hard in the past. “I don’t know that the office basketball pool should be messed with,” says Bo Bernhard of the International Gaming Institute at Univer- sity of Nevada, Las Vegas. “But the broader, more important issue is that there’s widespread wagering on sports that goes unmonitored, unregulated, and that’s where you can get in trouble.” NBA commissioner Adam Silver is among the most high-profile U.S. sports leaders acknowledging the reality that gambling is an ever-growing part of the American fabric. He says it adds to engage- ment and believes gambling “should be brought out of the underground.” The NFL still has a strict no-gambling policy, but gives tacit recognition to its role in the game by providing detailed injury reports. The league is strongly considering moving a team, the Raiders, to Las Vegas — an unthink- able notion for decades. The NFL also turns a relatively blind eye to fantasy football. Weekly fantasy foot- ball is considered gambling in a handful of states, most of which have differing defini- tions of what’s legal, mainly relating to the amount of luck vs. skill is involved in the game being wagered on. That debate is currently brewing across the country as daily-game fantasy sites fight for their survival. When it comes to office pools, though, Bernhard says you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand the basic idea. “Clearly, it’s betting some- thing of value on an event whose outcome is in doubt, and that’s the definition of gambling,” he said. “But it’s not something legal authorities are looking to crack down on.” The NCAA looks at it differently. Back in 2003, Wash- ington’s Rick Neuheisel was famously fired for participating in a high-stakes March Madness pool — even though he’s a football coach. Just last month, five players on the University of Richmond baseball team were suspended for playing fantasy football. Freeman labeled that story an instance of a school delivering “absurd punish- ments for students engaging in mainstream activities.” The numbers show there’s nothing more mainstream than filling out a bracket. Even if the student-ath- letes fueling all this madness aren’t allowed to. BMCC: Ulrey, Bonner and Cagle lead softball to sweep over Big Bend Continued from 1B the tying run. “We did a good job as a team,” Spivey said. “(Jared) made a great sac bunt to push them over, we had great baserunning ... everybody just did their job.” Freshman and Hermiston product Chase Root earned the win for Blue Mountain, as he pitched the final 1 1/3 innings and allowed just one walk with one strikeout to keep the door open for BMCC’s comeback. In Game 2, it was Shore- line that used late-inning magic to get the win as the Dolphins scored three times on Blue Mountain pitchers Chase Root and Kaden Enriquez to turn a 9-7 deficit into a 10-9 lead. Blue Mountain had a chance in the bottom of the inning to win or tie, but Shoreline pitcher Ryan Isler struck out two and induced an easy pop fly to seal the win. Blue Mountain trailed 5-3 after five innings, but finally got something going in the sixth inning when it dropped five runs in the inning. Tanner Broom kicked off the inning with a hit-by-pitch, starting a string of seven consecutive batters to reach base safely in the inning. TJ Rea supplied the inning’s biggest at-bat for the T-Wolves, as he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded with zero outs and a 5-4 deficit. On a 1-0 count, Rea waited out the slow delivery of the Shoreline pitcher and then exploded on a fastball, ripping it over the third baseman’s glove and into left field. The ball eventually got past the left fielder as well, and rolled all the way to the wall for a bases-clearing double to put Blue Mountain up 7-5. The Timberwolves added their final two runs on a pair of RBI singles by Garrett Friesz and Nate Cantonwine. Cantonwine was one of BMCC’s offensive leaders Saturday, going a combined 3 for 7 at the plate with four RBIs, while Friesz tallied a 3 for 5 day with a run and two RBIs in Game 2. Neither Blue Mountain starter made it through five innings, as Brian Howell went 4 2/3 innings in Game 1 and allowed four hits, five runs (two earned), with three walks and two strikeouts and Tanner Heiman went 4 2/3 innings in Game 2, giving up four hits, five runs (all earned) with three walks and seven strikeouts. ——— Game 1 R H E SCC 102 020 010 — 6 5 6 BMCC 400 001 002 — 7 6 5 T. Lopez, T. Wingert (7) and Z. Zurbrugg (SCC). B. Howell, N. Pena (5), C. Root (8) and C. Sutton (BMCC). W — C. Root. L — T. Wingert. 2B — K. Longakr, S. Rouzan, M. Meraz (SCC); T. Spivey, C. Sutton, N. Cantonwine 2 (BMCC). Game 2 R H E SCC 101 030 203 — 10 10 2 BMCC 002 105 100 — 9 14 3 T. Navoni, D. Campfield (6), R. Isler (7) and C. Walker (SCC). T. Heiman, C. Connolly (5), C. Root (7), K. Enriquez (9), and J. Rogers (BMCC). W — R. Isler. L — K. Enriquez. 2B — A. Amicangelo, C. Walker (SCC); T. Rea, T. Spivey 2 (BMCC). SUNDAY’S GAMES BLUE MOUNTAIN 8-12, CLACKAMAS 3-2 — At Pendleton, the Timber- wolves batted the ball around the park for 13 hits in each game and Gunnar Johnson pitched a seven-inning complete game to earn the win in the afternoon capper as BMCC swept Clackamas on Sunday. Johnson (2-3), a sopho- more from Fairview, gave up a pair of earned runs on four hits, walked one and struck out four in his longest outing of the season. The T-Wolves (4-7) went into the bottom of the fifth down 2-1 but with some momentum after center fielder Dylan Meenk pulled off a double play at second on line drive then Johnson struck out the next batter. Dustin Durflinger led off BMCC’s at-bat with a single, then TJ Rea reached on an error and Chase Labbe drew a walk to load the bases. Tate Spivey came through with a two-run out as he was caught trying to stretch a single to a double for the first out. Austin Florez followed with an RBI single, and the bases were loaded again two batters later after Tanner Heiman and Cameron Sutton reached on a hit-by-pitch and single, respectively. Nate Cantonwine then walked to push another run across, Andrew Hively drove in another with a sacrifice fly, and following a pitching change Rea walked to bring in another run and make it 7-2. BMCC added four more runs in the sixth, and enacted the mercy rule in the seventh when Matt Palmer doubled with two runners on. Hively finished with a team-high three RBIs in the game, Heiman, Durflinger and Sutton were 2-for-3, and Spivey and Florez were 2-for-4. In Game 1, it was a six-run sixth that put the T-Wolves on top for good and Rodney Scarver went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs to lead the offense and Canton- wine went 3-for-5. Colton Walker (1-0), a freshman from The Dalles, pitched the first five innings and allowed three unearned runs on four hits, one walk and four strikeouts to get the win in his third appearance this season. Florez pitched the last four and allowed no runs on one hit, two walks and one strikeout. A single and overthrow of first put Jared Rogers on second to start the bottom of the sixth for BMCC, which trailed 3-1. Hively moved him to third with a ground-out, and Sutton batted him in from there with a single. Garret Freisz followed with a walk, then Keegan Parry struck out swinging for the second out. Scarver put BMCC ahead with a double, and Rea followed with a triple to make it 5-3. Cantonwine kept the runs coming with a double, Spivey followed him with a single and Cantonwine then scored on a passed ball to make it 7-3. ——— Game 1 R H E CLCC 003 000 000 — 3 5 1 BMCC 010 006 01X — 8 13 2 R. Stecki, C. Anderson (6), M. Fletcher (6), T. Wilkinson (8) and D. Fritsch. C. Walker, A. Florez (6) and J. Rogers. W — Walker. L — Stecki. 2B — N. Cantonwine, R. Scarver (BMCC). 3B — T. Rea (BMCC). Game 2 (7 innings) R H E CLCC 002 000 0 — 2 4 4 BMCC 010 064 1 — 12 13 0 M. Dee, B. Hellbush (5), G. Fenwick (7) and D. Meenk. G. Johnson and C. Labbe. W — Johnson. L — Dee. 2B — A. Florez, M. Palmer, A. Hively (BMCC). SOFTBALL BLUE MOUNTAIN 12-11, BIG BEND 11-8 — At Pendleton, Sarah Bonner and Megan Ulrey each hit two home runs in the opener, then Ulrey and Lauren Cagle went 4-for-4 to lead the offense in the afternoon game as the Timberwolves took two in non-league play on Sunday. Ulrey hit her first home run with the bases loaded in a scoreless game in the bottom of the first inning. After starting pitcher Shandler Kidd stranded a pair of Vikings in the top of the first, BMCC (3-5) got going with a single by Bonner and then a pair of walks to load the bases for Ulrey, who hit an 0-1 offering over the wall for a 4-0 lead. Big Bend (1-3) plated a pair in the second, but Ulrey hit a three-run homer in the third and Addy Daubert reached on a triple then scored on a double steal to make it 8-2 when Kidd left the game. Big Bend would challenge the lead twice with big fourth and sixth innings, but Bonner hit homers in both the fourth and fifth to keep BMCC out in front 12-10 going into the last inning. Big Bend had the tying run on second with one out after Morgan Goslin’s RBI double, but Bailey Anderson earned the save by getting a fly-out to left and a swinging strikeout on the next two batters. Ulrey went 3-for-4 with seven RBIs and Bonner was 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Slater faced 21 batters and got the win despite giving up seven earned runs on nine hits and three walks. Ulrey continued to swing a hot bat in Game 2 and added three more RBIs to her day, and Cagle added three doubles and a home run to finish with three RBIs and three runs. Bonner (2-for-4) and Aunika Turner (2-for-3) also had big games as the first four batters in the lineup accounted for 12 of BMCC’s 13 hits. Turner tossed the first six innings and got her first win with The T-Wolves went up 3-0 in the first inning of Game 2 with RBI singles by Turner and Ulrey, then a steal of home by Turner. Big Bend battled back to tie it in the fifth, then after BMCC responded with a solo homer by Cagle and an RBI single by Ulrey, Big Bend took the lead with four runs (three unearned) in the sixth to make it 8-6. Cagle’s third double of the game came with bases loaded an no outs to knot the score back up at 8-8, and Ulrey added three-runs of insurance with a bases-clearing triple. Kidd came on in relief in the seventh and walked the bases full with one out, but stranded them all after getting infield pop-ups for the next two outs. ——— Game 1 R H E BBCC 020 404 1 — 11 14 1 BMCC 404 220 X — 12 8 0 S. Trejo and T. Ferguson. S. Kidd, M. Slater (4), B. Anderson (7) and C. Ringnalda. W — Slater. L — Trejo. S — Anderson. 2B — B. Nickelson, M. Goslin 2, S. Hughes, H. Sandoval (BBCC); M. Ulrey (BMCC). 3B — A. Daubert (BMCC). HR — S. Bonner 2, M Ulrey 2 (BMCC). Game 2 R H E BBCC 000 224 0 — 8 10 0 BMCC 310 025 X — 11 13 2 S. Baker, S. Trejo (5) and T. Ferguson. A. Turner, S. Kidd (7) and S. Bonner. W — Turner. L — Trejo. 2B — P. Korten, S. Hughes (BBCC); L. Cagle 3, A. Turner, B. Kralman (BMCC). 3B — M. Ulrey (BMCC). HR — M. Goslin (BBCC); L. Cagle (BMCC).