Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2017)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com MLB PLAYOFFS Cubs try to dent Dodgers Judge breaks loose Associated Press Submitted Photo The Astoria girls cross country team poses with another first place award, following Saturday’s George Fox Classic. Astoria girls win George Fox Classic By GARY HENLEY The Daily Astorian GERVAIS — The Astoria girls cross coun- try team remains unbeaten over the second half of the season, as the Lady Fishermen won again Saturday. Astoria took first place in the Bronze Divi- sion team standings of the George Fox Classic, held at Willamette Mission State Park. The Lady Fishermen tied for first in team scoring with Stayton, but a tiebreaker between the sixth runners of each school gave the win to Astoria, with Libbie Nash placing 31st ahead of Stayton’s Cailyn Riordan (38th). McKenzie Burnett was Astoria’s top fin- isher, covering the 5,000-meter course in a per- sonal best 20 minutes, 34 seconds, for eighth overall. Sophie Long placed 12th in 20:58, one sec- ond off her personal best; Kathy Perez ran a 40-second PR (21:36); Emma Roe and Abby Huskies head into off week with sudden concerns By JIM HOEHN Associated Press SEATTLE — Instead of easing as expected into their bye week, the Washington Huskies are deal- ing with offensive issues and inju- ries that contributed to a surpris- ingly punch-less performance in a loss at Arizona State. Washington lost left tackle Trey Adams and cornerback Jor- dan Miller to season-ending inju- ries during Saturday’s 13-7 upset loss to the Sun Devils, which dropped the Huskies from No. 5 to No. 12 in The Associated Press rankings. Adams, who has been men- tioned as a possible first-round NFL selection, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Miller broke his ankle late in the game. “It’s tough. You feel bad for those guys, and plus they’re good players, and feel bad for the team,” coach Chris Petersen said. “But next man up. This is how it goes and our team knows that. We talk about it ad nauseum early in the season. You just don’t know when it’s going to hit, but it is what it is.” Senior Andrew Kirkland replaced Adams against Arizona State, but Petersen said they have several possible offensive line combinations to consider. The Huskies (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12), who next host UCLA (3-3, 1-2) on Oct. 28, also must quickly address their kicking game and the general offensive inefficiency that resulted in Washington scoring just one touchdown Saturday. Gronki also had personal best marks (22:01 and 22:13, respectively); and McKenna Long rounded out the varsity team with a PR time of 23:29. The Lady Fishermen are ranked eighth in the state at the Class 4A level, and rising as they near the postseason races. On the boys’ side, Seaside’s Rafi Sibony was eighth overall in 16:51, out of 149 runners. The Gulls did not field enough runners to place as a team. The day was full of personal records for the Astoria boys, who finished 11th out of 19 teams. The top finisher for the Fishermen was freshman Nikolai Boisvert (50th, 18:37). Teammate William Berezay also had a personal best (63rd, 18:53). “It was another great day for us, and another day of big improvements,” said Astoria coach Andrew Fick. “Anytime we’re having 19 PRs in a day, that’s something to be happy about. I was really impressed to see a lot of our guys stepping up today and running really great races.” For the Astoria girls, “they just keep running stronger and faster,” Fick said. “I know that some of them came in a little tired today since we’ve been training really hard this past week, but they went out there and worked together to run great races and come out with the team win. “I’m really pleased with how everyone ran, though seeing Libbie PR by almost a minute and have that be the difference for the team coming home with first place is pretty incredi- ble. It really highlights that this is a team sport, and even though everyone is out there running their own race, they’re also part of something bigger.” The Lady Fishermen are behind Tillamook and Scappoose in the state rankings, but Astoria could be running as the favorite by the time of the Cowapa League championship meet, Oct. 26 in Tillamook. Things to know as the NBA season begins By TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press Happy New Year, NBA. The 72nd regular season starts tonight, when Boston heads to Cleve- land and Houston goes to Golden State. Fans in Cleveland will boo Kyrie Irving, fans in Oakland will cheer the Warriors’ latest championship banner and the march toward April will finally be underway. The offseason was loaded with changes. Carmelo Anthony and Paul George went to Oklahoma City, Gor- don Hayward and Irving went to Bos- ton, Isaiah Thomas got sent to Cleve- land, Jimmy Butler is now in Minnesota and Paul Millsap calls Denver home. That’s seven All-Stars who moved, a record for an NBA offseason. Every coach who started last season will start this season. That’s an NBA first. QUICK STARTERS: San Anto- nio, Toronto and Miami will likely start 1-0 — because under current manage- ment, San Antonio, Toronto and Miami almost always start 1-0. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is 18-2 on opening night, Raptors coach Dwane Casey is 7-1 and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is 7-2. Spoelstra has started 1-0 in each of the last six seasons, the longest such run in the NBA. A coach in need of a 1-0 start? Try New Orleans’ Alvin Gen- try. He’s dropped five straight openers and is 2-9 on opening night. Brooklyn, Orlando, Milwaukee and Utah have the league’s longest current opening night losing streaks, starting 0-1 in each of the last four seasons. FROM DISTANCE: Last season was the third straight where the NBA’s team single-season 3-point record fell, starting with Houston (933 in 2014-15), Golden State (1,077 in 2015-16) and Houston again (1,181 from 2016-17). Between the Rockets, Cleveland, Bos- ton and the Warriors, four of the five highest single-season 3-point totals in history came last season. Don’t expect A look at what’s happening all around the majors today. PROFESSOR VS YU: Kyle Hendricks is set to pitch for the Cubs, who are trying to overcome a 2-0 deficit against the Dodgers in their NL Championship Series. Hendricks finished the regular sea- son with a 2.19 ERA over his final 13 starts and opened the play- offs with seven scoreless innings against the Nationals. The Pro- fessor, from Dartmouth, has been overpowering at times despite a fastball that averaged just 86.6 mph, third-slowest among pitchers with at least 100 innings this year. Yu Darvish gets the nod for Los Angeles. The Japanese right- hander tweaked his mechanics after being acquired from Texas in a trade deadline deal, and he’s been dominant with a 98 mph heater this fall. He pitched one-run ball and struck out seven over five innings in NLDS Game 3 against Arizona. JUDGE JOINS: Yankees slugger Aaron Judge had mostly been a no-show in the play- offs before launching a three-run homer against the Astros on Mon- day, lifting New York to an 8-1 win in Game 3 of the AL Champion- ship Series. The rookie, who led the league with 52 home runs this season, was a combined 2 for 28 with 20 strikeouts in the playoffs vs. Cleveland and Houston until connecting. Judge also made a fine running catch while slamming into the padded right field wall at Yan- kee Stadium. LEAN ON LANCE: Houston manager A.J. Hinch picked Lance McCullers Jr. over Brad Peacock to pitch against Yankees right- hander Sonny Gray in Game 4, with the Astros leading the series 2-1. McCullers, an All-Star in July, finished 7-4 with a 4.25 ERA but hasn’t started since Sept. 30 or won since June 24. McCullers was side- lined from July 31 to Sept. 6, his second stint on the disabled list this year due to lower back dis- comfort, but made his first career relief appearance against the Red Sox in the Division Series. Hinch said McCullers “has some of the best stuff in the big leagues and we believe in him.” “I’ve been feeling like myself a lot more lately,” said McCullers, who won 5-1 at Yankee Stadium on May 12. “I’m excited to get the ball.” TURNED OVER: The Dodg- ers and Cubs are in the NLCS for a second straight year, but this Los Angeles team looks very different. Justin Turner was the only Dodger to start Game 2 of the 2016 NLCS and crack LA’s starting lineup Sunday. AP Photo/Tony Dejak Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and Golden State Warriors’ Ste- phen Curry battle for a loose ball last season. the 3-ball to go away anytime soon, either. LEBRON’S MARKS: LeBron James’ list of milestones is about to get longer. He comes into this season 1,213 points shy of becoming the seventh NBA player to reach 30,000, meaning it should happen by about the All-Star break barring any extended absence. He’s also on pace to eclipse the 8,000-rebound and 8,000-assist marks this season. The only other player in NBA history with 25,000 points, 6,000 rebounds and 6,000 assists is Kobe Bryant. James already has all those numbers, and counting. WHERE’S THE DEFENSE? In 2014-15, half the league — 15 teams — held opponents under 100 points per game. Two seasons later, San Anto- nio and Utah were the only teams that managed the feat. The league’s planned crackdown on traveling this season might help, but it’ll be interesting to see if defensive numbers improve in this era of 3-point-reliant, pace-and-space basketball. MAYBE MINNESOTA: Think about this, with apologies to fans in the Pacific Northwest: There have been more NBA playoff games in Seattle over the last 13 years than in Minne- apolis. This will finally be the year that changes. The Timberwolves, who last reached the postseason in 2004, should return this spring even in a loaded West- ern Conference with Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and new addi- tion Jimmy Butler leading the way. SPURS CHASE HISTORY: If the Spurs win 41 games this season — a safe bet — it’ll be the 21st consecu- tive season where San Antonio finishes the regular season at .500 or better. That would tie the NBA mark in that depart- ment, matching the feat set by the Utah Jazz from 1983-84 to 2003-04. The Spurs set a record for consecutive win- ning seasons last year with their 20th. (Utah was 41-41 in 1984-85.) DIRK’S LONGEVITY: Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki enters this season 31 games away from passing Kevin Wil- lis for No. 6 on the NBA’s all-time list. At 48,673 minutes, he’s also within striking distance of No. 5 Elvin Hayes (50,000), No. 4 Jason Kidd (50,111) and No. 3 Kevin Garnett (50,418). AP Photo/Frank Franklin II New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge hits a three-run home run Mon- day against the Houston Astros. SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Volleyball — Scappoose at Astoria, 7 p.m.; Banks at Seaside, 7 p.m. Cross Country — Clatskanie Invita- tional, TBA WEDNESDAY Girls Soccer — Astoria at Banks, 4:15 p.m. — Seaside at Tillamook, 7:15 p.m. Boys Soccer — Banks at Astoria, 6:30 p.m.; Tillamook at Seaside, 7:15 p.m. THURSDAY Cross Country — Cullaby Lake 3K, TBA FRIDAY Football — Scappoose at Astoria, 7 p.m.; Banks at Seaside, 7 p.m.; Warren- ton at Portland Christian, 7 p.m.; Central Linn at Knappa, 7 p.m.; Ilwaco at Ocos- ta, 7 p.m.; Naselle at Taholah, 7 p.m.
