10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorianSports
Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Oregon players hospitalized after intense workouts
Associated Press
EUGENE — At least three Ore-
gon football players have reportedly
been hospitalized following a series
of intense workouts.
The Oregonian reported that
offensive linemen Doug Brenner
and Sam Poutasi and tight end Cam
McCormick are in fair condition
and remained at PeaceHealth Sacred
Heart Medical Center at Riverbend
in Springfield on Monday, a hospital
spokeswoman said.
The school says in a statement to
the newspaper that it will continue to
monitor and support the players as
they recover. The university says it
has “implemented modifications as
we transition back into full training to
prevent further occurrences.”
The newspaper reports that Pouta-
si’s mother says her son has been
diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a
condition that occurs when muscle
tissue breaks down and leaks into
the blood stream. The condition can
cause kidney damage.
Oregon coach Willie Taggart took
over the team in December, after
Mark Helfrich was fired. Earlier this
month the Ducks hired Irele Oderinde
as the new football strength and con-
ditioning coach. The players had been
on a nearly monthlong break.
Wizards dominate Blazers
in mid-afternoon matchup
Washington hits 13
3-pointers, extends
home win streak to 12
By STEPHEN WHYNO
Associated Press
AP Photo/David Goldman
Seahawks cornerback Richard
Sherman tackles Falcons wide
receiver Julio Jones during
the NFC divisional playoff
game Saturday in Atlanta.
W
ASHINGTON — Determined not
to give the Portland Trail Blazers’
elite guards any feel-good shots, the
Washington Wizards knocked down a few of
their own and got rolling.
Bradley Beal scored 25 points and John
Wall had 24 as the Wizards took a page out
of the Trail Blazers’ playbook by hitting 13
3-pointers in a comfortable 120-101 victory
on Monday afternoon.
Washington, which relies on the 3-point
shot less than almost any other NBA team,
made 9 of 13 3-pointers in a 75-point first half
and was 13 of 23 in the game.
“When we play defense and get rebounds
and get out in transition, teams (have) to col-
lapse when I’m penetrating,” said Wall, who
was 10 of 17 from the floor. “We moved the
ball very well, and guys were knocking down
shots and shooting with confidence.”
Confidence came from a 4 of 5 start and a
10-0 lead as Beal was hot early. He and Wall
outplayed Portland’s Damian Lillard and C.J.
McCollum, who Wizards coach Scott Brooks
said combined to be as good as any backcourt
in the league.
Lillard led the Blazers with 22 points and
McCollum had 12, but they combined to
shoot 11 of 29 from the floor.
“Just staying down on his pump fakes,
making it tough for him, using my length to
disturb him and just making sure I keep him
in front of me because he’s one of the quick-
est guards in the league,” said Wizards guard
Kelly Oubre, whose 18 points were one shy of
his career high.
The Wizards led by as many as 30 on
the way to their 12th consecutive home vic-
tory and their fourth win in five games.
They limited the Blazers to 8 of 26 shoot-
ing from beyond the arc, part of which was
self-inflicted.
“I thought our whole team struggled offen-
sively,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “We
didn’t pass and move. We didn’t do things that
make us a good offensive basketball team.”
Washington did plenty of things to look
like a good offensive basketball team, and
Brooks was particularly proud of his team’s
ball movement that helped put the game out
of reach.
“I think early in the game when guys get
good looks and they see the ball go in, they get
confident, they start believing,” Lillard said.
“Later in the game when we started to contest
shots and have more of a presence, it didn’t
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Boys Basketball — Astoria at Valley
Catholic, 6 p.m.; Seaside at Scappoose,
6 p.m.; Warrenton at Rainier, 7:45 p.m.;
Knappa at Life Christian, 7 p.m.; Jewell
at Willamette Valley Christian, 7:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball — Astoria at Valley
Catholic, 7:45 p.m.; Seaside at Scap-
poose, 7:45 p.m.; Warrenton at Rainier,
6 p.m.; Jewell at Willamette Valley Chris-
tian, 6 p.m.; Willapa Valley at Ilwaco, 7
p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Wrestling — Knappa at League Meet,
Vernonia, TBA
THURSDAY
Girls Basketball — Clatskanie at
Warrenton, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Clatskanie at
Warrenton, 8 p.m.; Ilwaco at Willapa Val-
ley, 7 p.m.
Swimming — Seaside at Tillamook,
4 p.m.
Wrestling — Seaside at Astoria, 5:30
p.m.; Warrenton at League 4-Way, Willa-
mina, 5 p.m.
FRIDAY
Boys Basketball — Astoria at Sea-
side, 6 p.m.; Knappa at Gaston, 8 p.m.;
Jewell at C.S. Lewis, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball — Astoria at Sea-
side, 7:45 p.m.; Knappa at Gaston, 6
p.m.; Jewell at Seaside JV2, 6 p.m.;
Raymond at Ilwaco, 7 p.m.
Wrestling — Gary Seaney Tour-
nament, Tillamook, TBA; Seaside at
Nestucca, 5 p.m.
SATURDAY
Boys Basketball — Raymond at Ilwa-
co, 7 p.m.
Wrestling — Knappa at Gervais, TBA
Sherman
played half
the season
with injury
Coach said
cornerback had
MCL problem
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
AP Photo/Nick Wass
Wizards guard Tomas Satoransky gets a hand in the face by Trail Blazers forward
Meyers Leonard, back, Monday in Washington. The Wizards won 120-101.
UP NEXT: TRAIL BLAZERS
• Portland Trail Blazers (18-25)
at Charlotte Hornets (20-21)
• Wednesday, 4 p.m. TV: CSNW
“We were getting our heads beat in, we
didn’t execute our offense, I got some fouls
early (and) the game got out of hand,” McCo-
llum said.
MLK DAY
really impact them because they had already
seen the ball go in three or four times on the
perimeter.”
STREAK OVER
McCollum’s streak of consecutive games
with 25-plus points ended at eight. Beal tried
to take McCollum off his game early by being
physical, and foul pressure mounted.
Wearing a shirt with the message: “His
dream inspired the world. Never stop dream-
ing,” Beal took the microphone to address
the crowd of 17,395 on Martin Luther King
Jr. Day. Brooks said he always stops by the
MLK Memorial during his walks around the
National Mall, and Stotts said about half the
team went to the National Museum of Afri-
can American History and Culture after prac-
tice Monday.
Quartet of impressive QBs
vie for Super Bowl berths
By HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
Tom Brady vs. Ben Roethlisberger.
Aaron Rodgers vs. Matt Ryan.
Quite a quartet of QBs is heading
to the NFL’s conference championship
games next weekend: Brady’s New
England Patriots host Roethlisberg-
er’s Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC,
and Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers play
at Ryan’s Atlanta Falcons in the NFC.
Consider the collective bona fides:
Among them, Brady, Roethlisberger
and Rodgers can boast of 10 Super
Bowl appearances and seven titles,
four Super Bowl MVP awards and
four regular-season MVP awards. Not
too bad.
Ryan, never a Super Bowl partici-
pant, is the least-accomplished mem-
ber of the final four, but he just so
happens to be the quarterback on the
All-Pro team this season and the favor-
ite to collect league MVP honors.
Brady and Rodgers also figure to
get some votes for that accolade, which
will be handed out the day before the
Super Bowl in Houston on Feb. 5.
These four guys would love to be in
CONFERENCE TITLES
• Green Bay Packers (10-6)
at Atlanta Falcons (11-5)
• Sunday, 12:05 p.m. TV: FOX
• Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5)
at New England Patriots (14-2)
• Sunday, 3:40 p.m. TV: CBS
town for that game, of course.
Rodgers and Ryan moved closer to
playing for the Vince Lombardi Tro-
phy with terrific divisional-round per-
formances, none more thrilling than
Green Bay’s 34-31 win over the Dal-
las Cowboys.
Running to his left, and running
out of time and territory on a third-
and-20, Rodgers whipped his wrist
for a 36-yard completion to tight end
Jared Cook, who barely managed to
scrape the toes of each shoe inbounds
before tumbling to the sideline with 3
seconds remaining. That set up Mason
Crosby’s game-ending, tiebreaking
51-yard field goal.
“This one’s special,” Rodgers said.
“More special than we’ve had around
here in a while.”
All Ryan did Saturday was throw
for 338 yards, three TDs and no inter-
ceptions to beat the Seattle Seahawks
36-20 .
The AFC quarterbacks were not as
impressive as their NFC counterparts
this weekend, but did enough to get by.
Roethlisberger threw an end zone
interception and failed to produce a TD,
but Chris Boswell’s postseason-record
six field goals helped the Steelers get
past the Kansas City Chiefs 18-16 on
Sunday. Brady was picked off twice
— equaling his season total — but the
Patriots still defeated the overmatched
Houston Texans 34-16 on Saturday.
Each conference title game is a
rematch from this season.
Rodgers and Ryan engaged in a
thrilling showdown in Week 8 on Oct.
30, when Atlanta edged Green Bay
33-32 .
Rodgers threw for four TDs, one
more than his foe, and ran for 60 yards,
but Ryan got the last word by con-
necting with Mohamed Sanu for an
11-yard score with 31 seconds to go.
A week earlier, Brady and the Patri-
ots won 27-16 against a Steelers team
missing the injured Roethlisberger.
RENTON, Wash. — Seat-
tle Seahawks cornerback Richard
Sherman played the second half of
the season with an injured knee,
although he was never listed on
any injury report.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll said
Monday that Sherman had an
MCL injury in his knee, similar to
the ones suffered by quarterback
Russell Wilson and wide receiver
Tyler Lockett earlier in the season.
Carroll called the injury “sig-
nificant” on his weekly radio show
on KIRO-AM Monday morn-
ing and expanded on the situation
later in his end-of-season news
conference.
“He never missed anything.
Just like Russell never missed
anything. Tyler. They all happened
over the course of the season and
they all just made it through it,”
Carroll said.
“They never complained, they
didn’t want to miss a practice and
they basically didn’t miss any-
thing. But they were legit, those
were legit injuries, they showed up
in the whole thing. That’s a chal-
lenge. Guys all over the league are
going through the same thing, but
our guys just happened to be doing
it as well.”
Carroll did not specify which
knee Sherman injured and Sher-
man never appeared to miss any
game time due to an injury in the
latter half of the season.
Yet the disclosure raised ques-
tions of whether the Seahawks
circumvented the NFL’s injury
reporting policy.
Sherman was not listed on any
injury or practice report this sea-
son with a knee injury.
Sherman typically sat out at
least one practice per week start-
ing around midseason, but each of
those was given an “NIR” — not
injury related — designation on
the practice report.
The only time Sherman was
listed as having an injury desig-
nation came in Week 12 against
Tampa Bay when he was listed
with an ankle injury.
“I’m feeling like I screwed
that up with not telling you that
because that happened, but he
was OK,” Carroll said. “So I don’t
know. He never missed anything,
which is probably why.”
Carroll said he had a “big meet-
ing” with Sherman after the sea-
son-ending 36-20 loss to Atlanta
on Saturday in the NFC divisional
playoff game.
It was a tumultuous season for
the cornerback that included two
sideline blowups during games,
conflicts with local media and an
undisclosed injury.