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.
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