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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2016)
SPORTS 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 Loggers fall at Heppner Mighty Ducks soar over defending champ Duke The Daily Astorian HEPPNER — Knappa coach James Nichols said, “we’re the best three-inning team in the state.” Unfortunately for his Lady Logger softball team, games go seven innings nowadays. Knappa has held leads in all of its last four games, but the Loggers have now lost five in a row, follow- ing losses to Heppner (13- 3) and Enterprise (15-5) Thursday. SCOREBOARD PREP SCHEDULE SATURDAY Baseball — Warrenton at Creswell (2), Noon Softball — Warrenton at Creswell (2), Noon Both games took place in Heppner. “We’re just making too many mistakes in the ¿eld,” Nichols said. Knappa was ahead after three innings in the loss to Heppner, in which Knappa freshman Hannah Hellburg was 2-for-2 at the plate. The Loggers fall to 1-6 overall, but will still be a force in the Northwest League. Knappa opens the league season Tuesday at Neah-Kah-Nie. Pac-12 lives up to its billing in NCAA women’s tourney By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer Throughout the season, the metrics kept saying the Pac-12 Conference was the best in the country. When it came time to back it up in the NCAA Tournament, the Pac-12 delivered. Pac-12 teams will make up 25 percent of the Sweet 16 when the women’s regional semi¿nals get started )riday. No. 2 seed Oregon State, No. 3 seed UCLA, No. 4 seed Stan- ford and No. 7 seed Washing- ton all advanced through the ¿rst weekend of the tourna- ment, giving the Pac-12 four teams in the ¿nal 16 for the ¿rst time in conference history. The league had never advanced more than three teams beyond the ¿rst weekend. “It’s awesome for the Pac- 12 to have four teams in the Sweet 16. We only started with ¿ve to begin with,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I think it’s a big statement. I think the win by Washington is huge. ... I think people really took care of business and that’s awesome. But we know we’ve been play- ing against good teams.” Oregon State romped into the regional semis a year after getting upset in the second round. UCLA and Stanford both held off upset bids on their home courts. And Washing- ton pulled the surprise of the ¿rst two rounds by taking out two-time )inal )our participant Maryland on the Terrapins’ home Àoor. The only stumble came from No. 2 seed Arizona State, which saw its run end with a second-round loss to perennial power Tennessee. While the Pac-12 fell on its face in the men’s tournament with six of seven teams elim- inated on the opening week- end, the women’s teams are liv- ing up to their billing. The SEC is the only other conference to advance four teams to the regional semi¿nals. Here’s a look at the four remaining Pac-12 teams: OREGON STATE: A sea- son ago, the Beavers were the upstarts looking to the NCAAs as the next step in their progres- sion to becoming an elite pro- gram, only to get upset in the second round on their home Àoor by *onzaga. The Beavers have what appears to be the easiest matchup of the remaining Pac- 12 teams, facing No. 6 seed DePaul in the regional semis, but a win there would likely set up a regional ¿nal against Bay- lor in Dallas. UCLA: The last time UCLA reached the regional semi¿nals was 1, when the Bruins lost to Louisiana Tech in the regional ¿nal. The Bruins’ reward for getting this far is fac- ing No. 2 seed Texas in Bridge- port, Connecticut, and the win- ner likely getting a date with undefeated UConn. STANFORD: Stanford has the most dif¿cult challenge in the regional semis, facing No. 1 seed Notre Dame. WASHINGTON: The Huskies are the surprise of the four after beating Maryland in the second round. It’s been 15 years since the Huskies last made the regional semi¿nals, but with a scorer like Kelsey Plum anything is possible with the Huskies. Plum had 32 points in the win over Maryland and will need another big game when Washington faces No. 3 seed Kentucky on the Wildcats’ home Àoor. )aces Oklahoma in West Region ¿nal Saturday By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Oregon Ducks took a dou- ble-digit lead early in the sec- ond half against the defending national champions, and they never Àinched down the stretch. After taking down mighty Duke with remarkably little drama, these high-Àying Ducks are on the brink of the )inal )our. Dillon Brooks scored 22 points and Oregon advanced with an 82-68 victory over the Blue Devils on Thursday night in the West Region semi¿nal of the NCAA Tournament. Elgin Cook had 16 points and nine rebounds for the top- seeded Ducks (31-6), who will meet Oklahoma on Saturday. The second-seeded Sooners routed Texas A&M 77-63. After a season-long rise in the Paci¿c Northwest, the Pac- 12 champion Ducks emphat- ically arrived on the national stage with a strong second-half rally to beat the Blue Devils (25- 11) for the ¿rst time in school history. “I think we don’t have a history of being a basketball school, but I think we did some great things this year to prove we deserve it,” said Jordan Bell, who had 13 points and seven rebounds. “I think we played one of our best games this year. Everybody, not just including me. I think we showed every- body we’re a good team.” The win is a landmark for a football school making its bas- ketball mark. But it was also remarkable for what the Ducks didn’t allow in the second half. No nerves, no panic — and no rallies by Duke. The Ducks didn’t take the enormity of their accomplish- ment for granted, even though Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo Oregon forward Elgin Cook celebrates after their win against Duke during an NCAA college basketball game in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, Thurs- day, in Anaheim, Calif. they can’t spend much time thinking about it right now. “Duke is a household name,” coach Dana Altman said. “Coach K, I have a great deal of respect. So yeah, our guys knew the signi¿cance of play- ing Duke, defending national title, all the )inal )ours, all the national championships that their program has been able to win. It was a different feel to it.” Oregon was the champion of the ¿rst NCAA Tournament in 13, but hasn’t been back to the )inal )our since. The Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight for the ¿rst time since 27 and the third time since 22. Brooks hit four 3-pointers to lead the Ducks, who also broke the school’s single-season wins record with their 31st. They’ve won 1 straight since mid-)eb- ruary while winning the Pac- 12’s regular-season and tourna- ment titles. “They’re not that deep,” Brooks said of the Blue Devils. “I think (*rayson) Allen played the whole game. They’ve really only got seven guys. We knew they were bound to get tired. We just kept going and kept going, knowing they’d wear out. ... Some of them, their shoulders started to sag. Once they got tired we could see it.” )reshman Brandon Ingram scored 24 points, but Duke fell short of its third Elite Eight trip in ¿ve years — and both coaches agreed the better team won. Allen, the Blue Devils’ lead- ing scorer, got 12 of his 15 points in the second half, but Duke couldn’t make much progress in the second half. “They’re an athletic team, and that plays into their defense,” said Allen, who went 4 for 13. “I also thought we missed some shots around the rim. Could have gone up stronger to ¿nish, but give them credit for going up to challenge us.” Coach Mike Krzyzewski still emerged proud of his young roster after losing ¿ve of its ¿nal 1 games. “They were the better team, that was pretty obvi- ous,” Krzyzewski said. “They knocked us back. They were always in control of the game. Right at the end, I thought we could do a Texas A&M (come- back) ... but then amazing things have to happen.” Oregon jumped out to an 11-point lead after back-to-back 3-pointers by Casey Benson and Chris Boucher, and they got the arena rocking with back-to-back fast-break dunks from Bell and Cook moments later. All New Craft Cocktail Bar, Lunch, Happy Hour & Dinner Menu’s! 581 S PROM, SEASIDE 503-738-6403 www.maggiesontheprom.com OPEN DAILY 8 AM to 9 PM
