SPORTS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2016
1B
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NBA
NCAA to allow
Big 12 title game
Blazers continue upswing
SAN ANTONIO
(AP) — The Big 12 will be
allowed to hold a football
championship game in the
future if it wants to under a
rule change
approved
at the
NCAA’s
annual
convention.
The change scraps the
requirement that leagues
have 12 members and play
in two divisions in order to
hold a title game. The new
rule lets a smaller league
play a title game pitting its
top two teams, provided it
plays a round-robin regular
season schedule as the Big
12 does now.
The vote by the NCAA
Division I Council passed
7-2 on Wednesday. The
Atlantic Coast Conference
and the American Athletic
Conference voted against it
and the Pac-12 didn’t vote.
The 10-member Big 12
is the only major conference
that doesn’t play a football
title game.
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21, Portland
downs Utah
Portland
Trail Blaz-
ers center
Mason
Plumlee,
center,
passes
away from
Utah Jazz
center
Rudy Gob-
ert, right,
and for-
ward Trevor
Booker, left,
during the
second half
of an NBA
basketball
game in
Portland
Wednes-
day.
off an 86-74 victory over
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have not strung together
three consecutive wins this
Utah
Portland
season.
Jazz
center
Rudy
Gobert, playing in his
By ANNE M. PETERSON
the Blazers, who led by as fourth game since missing
Associated Press
many as 20 in the second 18 with a sprained left
3257/$1'
² half after the teams traded knee, had three points and
'DPLDQ /LOODUG KDG WKHOHDGLQWKH¿UVW,WZDV eight rebounds. But Utah
points and 10 assists, and Portland’s second consec- remained without Derrick
the Portland Trail Blazers utive victory following a )DYRUV ZKR PLVVHG KLV
11th game because of a
VKRRN RII D VORZ ¿UVW KDOI three-game losing streak.
Gordon Hayward had sore back. He was listed
to beat the Utah Jazz 99-85
19 points for Utah, which as questionable before the
on Wednesday night.
CJ McCollum added 15 had won two straight. The game.
See BLAZERS/2B
points and eight assists for Jazz, who were coming
85
99
AP Photo/Craig
Mitchelldyer
HERMISTON
Neal goes from 1A to FCS
Two-time CRC
Defensive Player of
the Year commits to
Eastern Washington
Ex-NFL player
Phillips found
dead in prison
By SAM BARBEE
East Oregonian
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
(AP) — California prison
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Phillips has been found dead
in his prison cell, and they
suspect suicide.
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Kern Valley
FACES State Prison
found the
40-year-old
Phillips
unresponsive in
his cell shortly
after midnight
Wednesday. He
Phillips
was pronounced
dead about 1:30 a.m.
He had been in
segregation since April 2013
after he was suspected of
killing his cellmate.
A Kern County judge
had ruled Tuesday that there
was enough evidence to
try Phillips in the death of
37-year-old Damion Soward.
Phillips played for the
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released in 1997. He also
played for the Miami Dolphins
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“It’s just crazy
when I look back,
and literally less
than six months
ago I had no idea
what was going
to happen after
the Monday night
games.“
— Jessica Mendoza
ESPN broadcaster and
former professional
softball player who
was named as part of
the new ‘Sunday Night
Baseball’ broadcast
team. ESPN announced
on Tuesday that
Mendoza and Aaron
Boone would replace
Curt Schilling and John
Kruk in the booth.
Mendoza was an
analyst on two Monday
night games on ESPN
in August, before i lling
in on ‘SNB’ for the
rest of the season after
Schilling was suspended
from the network.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1968 — The Green Bay
Packers win their second
straight Super Bowl. The
JDPH GUDZV WKH ¿UVW
million gate in football
history. Bart Starr, the game’s
MVP, completes 13 of 24
passes for 202-yards.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com
Staff photo by Gary L. West/i le
In this Oct. 2, 2015 fi le photo, Hermiston’s Tre Neal sacks Coeur d’Alene sophomore quarterback
Colson Yankoff during a football game at Kennison Stadium in Hermiston. Neal has signed with
Eastern Washington University to continue a playing career that started in Ione.
HERMISTON
Former Bulldog wrestler
tearing it up at Nebraska
Three locals also in
action for Oregon State
East Oregonian
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state champion wrestler Tyler Berger is
proving to be an integral part of the success
coming to No. 9 Nebraska this season and
enters the weekend ranked No. 17 in the
nation at 157 pounds.
The redshirt freshman, who won three
of his OSAA titles as a Hermiston Bulldog,
picked up his 17th win of the season on
Sunday with a 3-2 win over Brandon King-
sley of No. 23 Minnesota.
Berger’s 17 wins ties him for third
among Cornhuskers and he’s posted a 17-4
overall record while going 8-2 in duals and
outscoring those opponents 25-9.
He’s won twice by pinfall, his quickest
in 1:04, once by technical fall and twice by
major decision.
He defeated former Hermiston teammate
Abraham Rodriguez of Oregon State to
Berger
help the Huskers sweep
their three opponents
at the Northeast Duals
back in November,
2015.
He also placed
seventh at the Midlands
Championships
in
December going 5-2.
Nebraska wrestles
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and at Ohio State on
Sunday.
Rodriguez’s Oregon State Beavers
moved back into the Top 25 ranking this
week with a 26-9 win over No. 16 Central
Michigan on Sunday, but neither of the
former Bulldogs in action were able to
come on top of their matches.
Rodriguez (8-10) lost by decision 7-1
while Joey Delgado (15-7) dropped his
149-pound match 8-3.
Riverside’s Hans Rockwell is 1-6 this
season with Beavers, but has only competed
in tournaments.
Next up for No. 23 Oregon State is a
home dual against Wyoming on Saturday.
Before his junior season, Tre Neal was
contemplating a transfer.
The 6-foot-3 defensive lineman, then
listed at 215
pounds, decided
“When I i rst
that if he wanted
a better shot at started playing
continuing
his
football career, a
football I
better education,
didn’t expect
and “a better
challenge,”
as
to make it this
he put it, then he
far,” Neal
would have to go
to a bigger school.
said. “I was
He transferred
to
Hermiston,
playing to
where he quickly
gained 15 pounds play. I enjoyed
of
muscle,
it, and I still
was named the
do. It was a
Columbia River
Conference
fun trip.”
Defensive Player
of the Year, and
— Tre Neal,
after a senior
Hermiston senior
season — now
weighing
250
pounds — that saw him repeat as CRC
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Neal has committed to play football at
Eastern Washington in Cheney, Wash-
ington.
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made,” former Ione football and basketball
coach, current Hermiston assistant coach
and longtime mentor of Neal Dennis
Stefani said. “He blossomed big time.
There really weren’t any weight programs
at Ione ... He was a big kid already but it
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and helped his speed and everything.”
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football I didn’t expect to make it this far,”
See NEAL/2B
Camp to coach four
Mountaineers one last
time in all-star game
By SETH DAHLE
EOU Sports Information
/$*5$1'(²$TXDUWHWRIVHQLRUVWXGHQWDWK
letes on the Eastern Oregon University football team
will get a chance to showcase their skills under the
direction of head coach Tim Camp at the 21st Annual
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Camp announced on Wednesday
morning
that
All-American
wide receiver Jace Billingsley,
defensive back Byron Benson,
defensive back Adam Bese and
linebacker Kristopher Welch will
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Savannah, Ga., amongst other seniors who had been
recognized as 2015 Preseason All-Americans by USA
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and NAIA programs, as well as those who have earned
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In addition, Camp will be the head coach for the
Admirals and will direct the four Mountaineers on the
gridiron one last time. He is just two wins away from
tallying the most victories by an EOU head coach in
program history.
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Kickoff is set for Jan. 18 at 2 p.m.