Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 2015)
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 Sports shorts Colts bet on vets INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Colts are betting big on experience. On Tuesday, WKH\IRUWL¿HG one of the NFL’s younger rosters with four longtime NFL veterans — wide receiver Andre Johnson, outside linebacker Trent Cole, running back Frank Gore and defensive end Kendall Langford — in a free-agent spending spree. Cole, Gore, Johnson and Langford are joining a team that has made three straight playoff appearances, won back-to-back division crowns and advanced one step deeper in the playoffs in each of Andrew Luck’s three seasons. Gore and Johnson, college teammates at Miami, said they hoped to sign with the same team in hopes of winning a Super Bowl together. Ferrell to play ball PHOENIX (AP) — Will Ferrell plans to play ball in spring training — and play ball and play ball and play ball. The comedian plans to play every FACES position while making appear- DQFHVDW¿YH Arizona spring training games on Thursday. He will play for all 10 teams Ferrell involved, HBO and Major League Baseball announced Wednesday. The star of “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgun- dy,” ‘’Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Elf,” among other movies, will travel to the Phoenix suburbs of Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale and Peoria via helicopter. The HYHQWZLOOEH¿OPHGIRUDQ upcoming HBO special in conjunction with the Funny or Die website co-founded by Ferrell. “We didn’t bring Sam here to be a (trade) chip. I’m the only Chip here.“ SPORTS HERMISTON/PENDLETON Bulldogs elevate into semis Hermiston advances with win over rival Pendleton Hermiston’s Maddy Juul shootst the ball guarded by Pendleton’s Kiana Sperl and Kristin Williams (20) in the Bull- dogs’ 48-30 win against the Bucks on Wednesday in Corvallis. By ERIK SKOPIL East Oregonian CORVALLIS — If Wednesday’s state quar- WHU¿QDO YLFWRU\ RYHU ULYDO 3HQGOHWRQ LV DQ LQGL cation of how the Hermiston Bulldogs intend to SOD\WKLVZHHNLQ&RUYDOOLVWKHUHVWRIWKH¿HOG better beware. The top-seeded Bulldogs elevated their game in the fourth meeting with their league foe, turn- ing in a 48-30 drubbing to ad- vance to Thursday evening’s &ODVV $ VHPL¿QDO URXQG YHU sus hometown Corvallis. Hermiston All three regular-season War on 84 rivalry games were decided by nine points or less but Wednesday, on the state’s biggest stage, the Bulldogs (23- 3) delivered their best perfor- Pendleton mance versus the No. 9 Buck- aroos (17-10). Hermiston held Pendleton to 8-for-39 shooting, forced 19 giveaways and used a balanced scoring attack to put the Buckaroos away early in the second half. Neither side shot better than 21 percent from WKH¿HOGLQWKHRSHQLQJKDOIDVWKH\DGMXVWHGWR playing in the spacious Gill Coliseum. But the Bulldogs found a more deft shooting touch in the second and the Buckaroos’ struggles persist- HG7KHOHDGUHDFKHGGRXEOH¿JXUHVRQD7DYLQ Headings top-of-key jumper two minutes into the second half and never fell below the 10-point threshold for the remainder. “I was super nervous,” said senior Abi Drot- zmann, who scored 10 points. “I’ve been here before but I was really nervous. I think after the ¿UVWKDOIZKHQZHVHWWOHGGRZQZHFDPHRXWDQG played way harder than we ever have. I think we elevated our game a lot. “We’ve never played 100 percent against See GIRLS HOOPS/2B Staff photo by E.J. Harris 48 30 PENDLETON Buckaroos eliminated after marathon nail-biter Pendleton struggles at line down stretch, falls to Churchill in four overtimes Pendleton’s Wes Persinger battles Chur- chill’s Levi Dean in the Bucks’ 67-64 quadruple overtime loss to the Lancers on Wednesday in Corvallis. minutes of action. Churchill’s DJ Wright Becker provided the deciding play for CORVALLIS — The Bucka- the Lancers (17-12), cleaning up roos earned four extra periods of a Hank Forrest miss to give the basketball to down Churchill in Lancers a 65-64 lead with 55 Wednesday morning’s consola- seconds remaining in the fourth extra period. Pendleton (18-8) tion game. The fact that they failed to do would come away empty-hand- HGRQLWV¿QDOWKUHHSRV so in each made the 67- sessions and Churchill 64 four-overtime defeat split two trips to the free all the more excruciat- throw line to provide the ing for Pendleton and its Churchill ¿QDOWKUHHSRLQWPDUJLQ KXQWIRUWKHVFKRRO¶V¿UVW The loss eliminates state playoff win in four the Buckaroos from the and a half decades at the state tournament, ends its Class 5A state basketball season and again sends tournament at Gill Coli- them eastward-bound Pendleton seum. without a state tourna- “Those are fun games ment victory. for the fans, fun games “It’s a good experi- for the winning team,” ence for the kids. It’s Pendleton coach Brian Broaddus been a good season. But, even- said. “Not so much for us.” The back-and-forth battle see- tually when you get to this level, sawed through 16 lead changes, you’ve got to make those plays,” 15 ties and countless end-of-peri- Broaddus said. &KXUFKLOO WRRN D ¿YHSRLQW od heroics that preserved play for what would prove a marathon 48 See BOYS HOOPS/2B By ERIK SKOPIL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris 67 — Chip Kelly Philadelphia Eagles head coach, who has full control of player personnel, dismissing the notion that the team could trade recently ac- quired quarterback Sam Bradford in a package designed to move up far enough in the NFL draft to select Oregon QB Marcus Mariota. 64 THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1966 — Chicago’s Bobby Hull scores his 51st goal to EHFRPHWKH¿UVW1+/SOD\HU to score more than 50 goals in a season. 2002 — Siena (17-18) with an 81-77 victory over Alcorn State in the play-in JDPHEHFRPHV¿UVWWHDPLQ 47 years to win an NCAA men’s basketball tourna- ment game with a losing record. 2005 — Bode Miller EHFRPHV WKH ¿UVW$PHULFDQ in 22 years to win skiing’s overall World Cup title. He ¿QLVKHVDKHDGRIKLVRQO\UH maining challenger, Benja- min Raich of Austria, in the VHDVRQ¶V ¿QDO JLDQW VODORP to capture the crown. The last non-Europeans to win the overall championship were Americans Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney in 1983. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS College Basketball Eagles oust Mountaineers from bracket Oklahoma Wesleyan tops Eastern Oregon at national tourney East Oregonian SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Aira- shay Rogers sank a buzzer-beat- ing three-pointer for the Eastern Oregon women’s basketball team, but there wasn’t much cel- ebrated by the Mountaineers on :HGQHVGD\LQWKH¿UVWURXQGRI the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Champion- ships. Rogers’ triple came too late and Oklahoma Wesleyan held on for a 60-57 win that was their ¿UVW YLFWRU\ LQ WKUHH VWUDLJKW tournament appearances at the Tyson Events Center. The Eagles (27-6) were led NAIA DII TOURNAMENT Okla. Wesleyan 60 Eastern Ore. 57 by Nichole Tate with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting. The senior guard also collected nine re- bounds on the night, while also dishing out six dimes and four steals. Tate was one of three Okla- homa Wesleyan players, Pa- tience Gitau (11) and Susan Ag- esen (10) to go for double-digit scoring on the night. Rogers lead Eastern (26- 7) with 15 points and seven boards to go along with Made- line Laan’s 12 points and seven rebounds. Maloree Moss added QLQH SRLQWV ¿YH UHERXQGV WZR assists and three steals. The Mountaineers led 29-28 to start the second half, but the Eagles opened on an 11-3 run that gave them their largest lead of the game at 39-32 with 14:39 to play. Eastern took its largest lead at 29-20 with 4:03 to play in the ¿UVWKDOIEXWPLVVHGLWVODVWVL[ shots of the half as the Eagles ¿QLVKHGRQDQUXQ Eastern Oregon failed to capitalize from beyond the arc all night, ending the day going 5-for-29 (17.2 percent), and was 19 for 62 (31.1 percent) from two-point range. With the loss, the Mountaineers’ season comes to a close. They also fell to 3-6 in opening round games of the national championship with the defeat. MILTON-FREEWATER Mac-Hi creates hall of fame East Oregonian McLoughlin High School will cele- brate the creation of its Hall of Fame by inducting an inaugural seven-member class at a ceremony in April. The recipients’ achievements cov- er a broad spectrum from the arts/enter- tainment, business, athletics, lifetime achievement, busi- ness and medicine/science categories. Three class members will be hon- ored for their role in Pioneers athletics, among other achievements — 1952 graduate Jerry Crimins, longtime wres- tling coach Jerry Ewing, and 1964 graduate John Zerba. Crimins continues to hold the See MAC-HI/2B