Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Page A-3
Lady Cougars climbing the ranks
The first win of the week was
Tuesday, Dec. 5, against Phoenix
- a team with an overall non-league
record of 1-2 - wherein the final
score sat at 37-29.
Top scoring players were
Aarika Brooks with 14 points, Alexis
Navarro with seven and Courtney
Scott and Bailee Moore both scored
six. Brooks also brought nine steals,
13 rebounds to the team that game
and in total the team had 26 steals
- a welcome number up from their
average of 17 steals per game.
Tristan Stocker
IVN Contributing Writer
The Lady Cougars kicked off
the season with a couple of close
victories against Hidden Valley and
La Pine before suffering their first
loss against Amity, and this week
they earned themselves two more
wins against Phoenix and Milo
Adventist Academy and a loss to
Oakland.
A few days later, the Lady
Cougars played another away game
against Oakland Friday, Dec. 8, but
couldn’t get the win. The final score
was 31-55.
Top scoring players on the
Cougar side were Brooks again with
10 points and newcomer to the team,
freshman Alexis Gomez, who scored
seven.
“We had 32 turnovers that
game and nine steals,” said head
coach Jonathan Valenzuela-Reece.
“We weren’t playing our game that
game. We were playing their game.”
Then Saturday, Dec. 9, on the
road again, the girls gave it their all
against Milo Adventist Academy,
earning themselves a sweet victory
with the final score sitting at 61-14.
Brooks and Moore both
brought the team 14 points that game
for a total of 28 between the two of
them.
Valenzuela-Reece used this
opportunity to swap in some girls
who don’t get that much play time,
but with a comparatively small team,
that isn’t too terribly difficult to do.
“We’re only running with eight
girls,” said Valenzuela-Reece, “and
five of them are freshmen. We’re
basically rebuilding this year.”
The girls are scheduled to
play yet another away game this
Thursday, Dec. 14, against Myrtle
Point, who is currently 2-2 in their
non-league games, and then the
following day, Friday, Dec. 15, the
Lady Cougars play Days Creek (3-1)
here at home.
I.V. boys’ basketball heating up
Tristan Stocker
IVN Contributing Writer
The Illinois Valley boys’ basketball team
scooped up their third non-league win for the
season Saturday, Dec. 9, at Milo Adventist
Academy after a couple of consecutive losses
against Phoenix and Oakland.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Cougars
hightailed it over to Phoenix to play the
Pirates but couldn’t quite keep it together.
The final score sat at 34-54.
Top scorer for the Cougars was Caleb
Hess with 15 points, earning nearly half the
team’s points for the entire game.
“Yeah, that game wasn’t our best
performance,” said head coach Matt Knight,
“but we were also missing a couple guys, so
that didn’t help.”
Then Friday, Dec. 8, the team made their
way up the 5 to Oakland to do battle with the
undefeated Oakland Oakers and lost 44-76.
Top scorers in the Oakland game were
Cody Box with 14 points and Elijah Polk with
12.
Dec. 9, the Cougars finally managed
to reel in a victory against Milo Adventist
Academy - the final score resting at 86-29
bringing their non-league standing to 3-3.
Caleb Hess led the team in scoring with
20 points. Tyi Brummet had 15 and Elijah
Polk had 14.
“We were able to get some guys in
who don’t get many minutes and get them
some time,” said Knight. “It was a good
game for us to kind of shore up some things
defensively and offensively that we just
haven’t had a lot of practice time to get
working on stuff. We’ve got a couple weeks
now with three games so we get two practices
in during the week and then play a bunch of
games so we’ve been kinda trying to learn
some stuff on the fly.”
The boys then play a home game on
Tuesday, Dec. 12 against Lost River - a
2A school known this year for beating 3A
schools. Thursday, Dec. 14, the team takes to
the road again to play Myrtle Point and then
the following day they play Days Creek at
home.
Oregon holds off winless Texas Southern 74-68
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — It was
the kind of ugly win Payton Pritchard
would just as soon forget, except for
the performance by the freshman
seated next to him.
Pritchard scored 16 points,
and Troy Brown had 10 points and
12 rebounds as Oregon struggled to
down winless Texas Southern 74-68
on Monday night.
The difference-maker was
Kenny Wooten with 13 points and
four blocks for the Ducks (7-3), who
started the second half on a 16-2 run
to open a 48-33 lead but still couldn’t
shake the Tigers (0-9).
“He’s really the reason why we
won this game,” Pritchard said. “As
the season goes on, Kenny is going
to have to step up big like he did
tonight.
“His talent is there, and he’s just
got to be ready to play every night
like that. He’s gotta be a dog. That’s
what we need and that’s what we
expect out of him.”
Wooten had a dunk and two
inside baskets midway through the
second half as the Ducks saw their
lead dwindle to single digits.
“Kenny saved us,” Oregon
coach Dana Altman said. “I thought
he was the difference in the game.”
Texas Southern trailed 65-64
with 3 ½ minutes to play before
driving layups by Pritchard and Paul
White gave Oregon some breathing
room. White had 11 points as six
Ducks scored in double figures.
Brown scored seven of
Oregon’s last 12 points, capped by a
3-pointer of an assist from Pritchard.
“We fought it out,” Pritchard
said. “We had a 15-point lead, so we
have to be better than that, we can’t
give that up”
Donte Clark led the Tigers with
17 points and Demontrae Jefferson
had 16.
After a lethargic first half,
Oregon relied more on its inside
game led by Wooten, MiKyle
McIntosh and Brown. The Ducks
were 13 of 17 at the foul line in the
second half after shooting just five
free throws in the first 20 minutes.
“The second half with us yelling
(from the bench) to drive it at them,
they did a little better job,” Altman
said. “The big difference there is
you shoot more free throws, because
you’re going to the basket hard.”
The Ducks shot 13 of 25 in the
second half to finish 25 of 59 for the
game (42.4 percent). Wooten was 6 of
7 from the floor and Pritchard 5 of 8.
“I’d like to give all the credit to
my teammates,” Wooten said. “They
fed me. I was just trying to get open
and they found me.”
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Saturday the 16th @ 6 PM
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Every Wednesday
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J Barley
Fridays @ 6 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 15 @ 9 p.m
Saturday Pool Tourney @ 8
Sunday night is FREE pool!
Sportsman
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Art’s Red
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Check out dinner
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Wed & Sun nights
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541-596-2202