SPORTS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016
Sports shorts
:arrLors ZLn tK
straLgKt at Kome
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)
— Stephen Curry scored 31
points and
Draymond
Green added
22 points
and 12
rebounds
to lead
the Golden State Warriors
to their 36th straight
regular-season home win,
111-103 over the Miami
Heat on Monday night.
Klay Thompson added 1
points to help the Warriors
(36-2) get halfway to
Chicago’s record win total
of 2 set in 1996-9 three
games before the midpoint
of the season.
Dwyane Wade scored
20 points and Chris Bosh
and Gerald Green added 15
apiece for the Heat, who had
won eight of their past 11
games here.
NFL suspends
Bur¿ Ft tKree games
CINCINNATI (AP) —
Bengals linebacker Vontaze
Bur¿ ct has been suspended
for the ¿ rst three games of
next season for repeated
violations of the NFL’s
rules against
FACES dangerous hits
on opposing
players.
His
most recent
penalty was
for targeting
Steelers
Buri ct
receiver
Antonio Brown after
an incompletion during Pitts-
burgh’s 18-16 playoff win on
Saturday night. The penalty
for hitting Brown in the
head moved the Steelers into
range for the winning ¿ eld
goal in the ¿ nal seconds.
The NFL noted that
Bur¿ ct had already been
¿ ned four times for
dangerous hits on players
during the season. The NFL
said it’s also reviewing the
conduct of other players
and coaches during the
acrimonious game.
“We’re going to
get them between
the lines, between
the plays, the
whistle. So I
mean, he’s going
to be sore after
the game. That’s
how I see it, man.
He comes out
on a screen, he
better not come at
[me]. I’m cutting
him. That’s where
I’m at with it. “
— Darian Stewart
Denver Broncos safety
promising retribution for
a helmet-to-helmet hit by
Pittsburgh Steelers center
Cody Wallace on Denver
safety David Bruton Jr.
during their regular sea-
son game in December.
The Broncos and Steelers
meet in the divisional
round of the playoffs on
Sunday in Denver.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1958 — The NCAA rules
committee makes the ¿ rst
change in football scoring
rules since 1912 by adding
the 2-point conversion.
2008 — The Green Bay
Packers beat the Seattle
Seahawks 42-20 to reach
the NFC championship
game. Ryan Grant recovers
from two fumbles that put
the Packers down 14-0 after
only four minutes. Grant sets
a team postseason record by
running for 201 yards, and
scores three times.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com
1B
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS
EO8 adds ZrestlLng for EotK genders
Mountaineers will
have only women’s
team in inland
northwest region
By SETH DAHLE
EOU Sports Information
LA GRANDE — Wrestling is
of¿ cially making its way back to the
campus of Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, Director of Athletics Anji
WeissenÀ uh announced at a press
conference on Monday afternoon.
Amidst reporters and cameras
inside 4uinn Coliseum, WeissenÀ uh
announced that EOU will be adding
women’s wrestling and reinstating
men’s wrestling beginning in the
fall of 2016.
“The addition of the programs
will allow us to attract local and
regional talent,” said WeissenÀ uh.
“Eastern and Central Oregon have
had and have a rich history of
success in wrestling.”
EOU received a startup fund of
See EOU WRESTLING/3B
College Football
Gutsy call pays off for Alabama
Alabama’s
O.J. How-
ard kisses
the cham-
pionship
trophy after
the NCAA
college foot-
ball playoff
champion-
ship game
against
Clemson
Monday,
Jan. 11,
2016, in
Glendale,
Ariz. Ala-
bama won
45-40.
By RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Alabama needed
it all to win the toughest national title game it
had ever played during the
NCAA
Nick Saban dynasty. All of its Championship
power. All of its speed.
Even one gutsy trick.
Derrick Henry, O.J. Howard
and Kenyan Drake hit No.
Alabama
1 Clemson with long touch-
downs, and Alabama outlasted
the dynamic play of dual-threat
quarterback Deshaun Watson
to win the College Football
Clemson
Playoff championship 45-40
on Monday night.
The Crimson Tide (14-1)
See CHAMPIONSHIP/3B
45
40
AP Photo/Chris
Carlson
HERMISTON
Bulldogs rally to defeat No. 4 Storm
Hermiston uses 12-3
run in 4th quarter to
comeplete comeback
on Summit
By SAM BARBEE
East Oregonian
After trailing most of the game,
the Hermiston boys basketball team
rallied in the second half to down
the No. 4 Summit Storm 56-53
Saturday in Hermiston to give the
Storm just its second loss of the
season.
Before taking a 41-39 lead with
49 seconds left in
From
the third quarter,
Saturday
the Bulldogs’ (8-6)
last lead was 5-4
in the ¿ rst quarter.
Summit
For interim head
coach Dave Ego,
the
comeback
was an indication
of the improved
“attitude and work
Hermiston
ethic” displayed
by his group,
which started last
season 2-12.
“It says our attitudes getting
better,” he said. “Not hanging your
head, and doing the things that we
need to do. They kept working hard
and it was a good effort down the
line.”
Early on, the height of Summit
(8-2) gave Hermiston (8-6) some
problems. Playing without Tre Neal,
Summit’s tall front line affected
numerous Hermiston shots at the
rim, but led just 16-14 after the ¿ rst
quarter. Hermiston started a small
lineup — ¿ ve guards — and wanted
to run the Storm into oblivion.
It wasn’t quite working, though,
53
56
Staff photo by Sam Barbee
Hermiston guard Chance Flores (1) rises for a layup over Summit’s
Nick Mason during the Bulldogs’ 56-53 win Saturday in Hermiston.
and Summit’s Jack Hurley hit a
3-pointer with 4:01 on the clock in
the second quarter to take its largest
lead of the game of eight points at
24-16.
But, as happened all afternoon,
Hermiston rallied to cut the halftime
de¿ cit to just three at 30-2 behind
the aggressive fast-breaking offense
Ego employs, and a strong effort by
6-foot-5 senior Preston Peterson off
the bench.
“Going small like we did, we
knew we could out-run ‘em,” Ego
said. “That worked out for us.
Peterson came in and played well
and ran the À oor well for us defen-
sively, and that was necessary for
us. It was a good team effort.”
Summit tried to extend its lead in
the third quarter, leading by as many
as ¿ ve after Cam Baker’s putback
with 2:51 left to move the count to
39-34, but a -0 Bulldogs run gave
them its ¿ rst lead since the second
quarter, and the fourth quarter began
with things tied up at 41.
Then Hermiston’s offense came
alive with help from its defense.
“We did a good job of closing
out and contesting,” Ego said of his
team’s defense against a Summit
squad that likes to, and can, shoot
3s, holding the Storm to just four.
“We did a pretty good job of getting
the post people inside. That’s
another weakness for us especially
with who we started.”
Summit committed 24 turnovers
on the day, while Hermiston made
just nine and committed back-to-
back turnovers just one. Hermiston
started the fourth quarter with a
massive 12-2 run with Dayshawn
Neal, who ¿ nished with 15 points,
and Chance Flores (1) doing most
of the damage off those turnovers.
Austin Naillon’s 3-pointer with 2:55
to go in the ¿ nal period gave Herm-
iston its largest lead of ten points at
53-43, and Summit looked dead.
Naillon ¿ nished with 20 points to
lead all scorers.
But the experience of the Storm
showed as they made things inter-
esting down the strech.
In a minute, Summit had cut the
lead in half at 53-48 when Russell
Wells hit a 3, his only basket of the
game, then, after Neal made one of
two free throws, Hurley hit a 3 to
See BULLDOGS/3B
Seahawks thaw out from Minnesota, move on in postseason
Carroll calls slow start,
comeback ‘really cool’
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Despite all of his
rapid optimism, there came a point in the
NFC wild-card game where doubt creeped
into Pete Carroll’s mind.
Not when the Seattle Seahawks were
watching Blair Walsh line up for a poten-
tial game-winning 2-yard ¿ eld goal in the
¿ nal seconds.
Earlier.
About 15 minutes of game-time earlier
when the Seahawks were looking at a 9-0
de¿ cit and had done nothing offensively.
“When they went to 9-zip it was a
moment of, ‘Oh boy, we haven’t scored
once, how are we going to score twice?’
There was a moment there questioning
“When they went to 9-zip
it was a moment of, ‘Oh
boy, we haven’t scored
once, how are we going
to score twice?’”
— Pete Carroll,
Seattle Seahawks head coach
what is going to happen next.” Carroll said
on Monday.
“And we came right back and got going,
and got our score, and got the turnover and
just À urried to the lead. Made it kind of fun.
We were back in it. I thought the whole
thing was really cool.”
Thawed out from the sub-zero tempera-
tures in Minnesota, the Seahawks were
See SEAHAWKS/3B
AP Photo/Jim Mone
Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh (3) reacts after
missing a i eld goal during the second half of an NFL
wild-card football game against the Seattle Seahawks,
Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis. The Seahawks
won 10-9.