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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2017)
B S PORTS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017 Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions survive Sisters with buzzer-beater; spread the ball out to roll past Sweet Home on Friday Cottage Grove had its hands full against the Outlaws, but the Lions put on a show against the Huskies and put themselves atop of the Sky-Em League BY SAM WRIGHT sports@cgsentinel.com Last week we reported that a key to the Lions’ success on the court was their ability to spread the ball around and have a variety of players scoring 10 points or more. While that may hod true for the majority of the season, it was not the cast last Tuesday when Cottage Grove hosted the then-third-ranked Sisters Outlaws in a sluggish and slow defensive battle that came down to the wire. In the 40-39 victory, Blake Sentman scored 29 points on the night, the third-highest scor- ing game he’s had this season. For Cottage Grove, however, it was the lowest scoring game the team has had all season, yet they still managed to pull out the win. Sisters struck fi rst and hard with 16 points in the fi rst quar- ter, holding the Lions to only six. But Cottage Grove respond- ed and had a 16-point quarter of its own and held the Outlaws to eight points. At 24-22, Sisters, the game had the potential to go in any direction, and after the third quarter, nothing had changed, at least not that much. The Outlaws and Lions com- bined for just 10 points in the third quarter, where Cottage Grove edged Sisters by just two points (6-4). This put the teams deadlocked at 28, accounting Photos by Gary Ordway Hunter Gipson (right) and Tucker Porter (left) were both strong contributors against Sweet Home after having a relatively quiet game against Sisters. ons on a three-game win streak, for just 56 points in the three the points. The Lions only had more impactful than they ap- 68-50. Here were once again the exactly how they needed to re- quarters. In the fourth quarter, two free throw attempts, which pear on paper. And while Sent- Sisters took a 39-38 lead with came from Sentman. Although man carried most of the scoring Lions Cottage Grove knows so spond after a two-game skid. seconds left on the clock. Rem- Parent’s spectacular poise won weight on his shoulders, the rest well. Sentman led the team in The wins also put Cottage Grove iniscent of the playoff game the game in crunch time, Sent- of the team made up for their scoring yet again, but this time at the top of the Sky-Em League against Baker City last season, man’s free throws (the only free lack of offensive production with 14 points. Tucker Porter, and back at 10th in the OSAA Kory Parent took charge to sink throws) may have also been ex- with stout defense, including who had a strong overall perfor- rankings. But the defending a buzzer-beating shot to win the actly what kept Cottage Grove signifi cant blocks from Hunter mance himself, followed with league champs will have their 12 points. DeJean Alonzo had crown challenged once again as alive. With his 29 points, Sent- Gipson and Jesse Ellingworth. game. Cottage Grove then hosted 11 points and Parent had 10. Sisters (now ranked seventh in The 79 combined points man shot 10 for 15 from the marks the lowest scoring game fi eld, which includes sinking Sweet Home in a game that saw That’s four players with 10 or the OSAA rankings) will host the Lions for a rematch. of the season thus far. The Li- seven of 10 from the three-point no such low numbers and re- more points. Cottage Grove travels to The Lions once again found sembled a more typical Lions’ ons were 15 of 34 from the line. Parent was the second-high- basketball team. Cottage Grove their rhythm and for the most Sutherlin this week before host- fi eld, eight of which were from beyond the arc, making Cot- est scoring player from Cottage never trailed the Huskies and part were in sync with each oth- ing Junction City. tage Grove’s three-point shoot- Grove with just four points, ran away with the game with a er. The two victories put the Li- ing account for over half of although those points were far 19-point fourth quarter to win Lady Lions see best week of the season with two blowout victories at home Athlete of the Week Blake Sentman leads Lions with 29 points over Sisters Photo by Sam Wright Hudson Weybright (right) was quiet on offense but loud on defense against Sweet Home with four steals and seven defl ections. Lions fi nish week with 21-point and 35-point victories in two of the best games the girls have played in all season BY SAM WRIGHT sports@cgsentinel.com The Lady Lions have just come off what could quite pos- sibly be called the more im- pressive week of the past two seasons combined. Head Coach Kevin Yoss and his team not only defeated their opponents this week, they routed them in a dominating fashion. First up was Sisters. Follow- ing a miraculous buzzer-beat- ing victory from the boys, it would’ve been hard to have just as memorable of a performance, but the girls’ team did not dis- appoint. The Lions held their lead from the start, outscoring the Outlaws in every quarter, slow- ly building a lead until the game was out of reach for Sisters. Cottage Grove had a 19-12 lead at halftime, but then they went on a 16-4 run in the third quar- ter. The Lions then fi nished off the Outlaws with a 10-8 fourth quarter and sent the Outlaws home with a 45-24 rout. Cottage Grove shot 17 of 44 from the fi eld and, more im- portantly, improved their free throw game, shooting at a rate of 55.6 percent. Once again, the Lions reached their rebounding goal by out-rebounding the opponent by 12 or more. This time it was well beyond their goal as Cot- tage Grove came away with 45 rebounds and Sisters fi nished with 28. Keara Murphy led the team in scoring on the night with 14 points. The junior shot 50 per- cent from the fi eld and was one- for-one from beyond the three- point line. She was also 83.3 percent from the line. Freshman Reilly Kelty fol- lowed Murphy with 13 points, shooting 45 percent from the fi eld and 75 percent from the free-throw line. Though Cottage Grove seemed to have cleaned up a lot of its issues, turnovers still persisted as an issue. The Li- ons had 27 turnovers and the Outlaws had 25. Two-thirds of the Outlaws points came off of turnovers. The score could have been a lot more devastating to Sisters had the Lions limited turnovers. Though 27 turnovers might not have been great for Cottage Grove, the team seems to be moving in the right direction. On Friday, the Lions managed seven fewer than the previous game and allowed no points off of those turnovers. The Sweet Home Huskies were in for a really rough night at Cottage Grove High School. The Lions started things off ear- ly by going up 13-0 at the end of the fi rst quarter, and Sweet Home wasn’t going to score much after that. In the second quarter, Cottage Grove out- scored them 16-4 then 16-7 in the third quarter. Then fi nally, Please see ROUTS, Page 3B While it was Kory Parent who sank the buzzer-beating fi eld goal to beat Sisters 40-39, Blake Sentman carried his team with 29 points, outscoring the next Cottage Grove high scorer by 25 points. The senior accounted for nearly 75 percent of the Lions' points that night and shot 10 for 15 from the fi eld and shot 70 percent (sev- en of 10) from beyond the three-point line. Sentman led the Lions in scoring again against Sweet Home but this time with only 14 points. He is currently Cottage Grove's top scorer with 299 points on the season, well over twice as many as the next leading scorer. His highest scoring game was against Montesano where he scored 37 points on the night.