SPORTS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016
NFL
1B
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Umatilla
senior Juan
Coria (23)
starts to
spin out of
a double
team of
Vale’s Jake
DeLong
(22) and
Brock Mat-
tos during
Umatilla’s
47-38 win
Saturday at
The Pit.
Boys Basketball Roundup
Seattle New lineup lifts Viks
picks
Umatilla beats
Vale at home
up chip
Seahawks’ exit
from playoffs
mirrored season
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. —
The ending to the Seattle
Seahawks season was a
microcosm to the year as a
whole.
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unexpected
s t a r t ,
followed
by a furious
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ultimately falling short of
what the end goal was all
along.
“It gives us something
to reach for, something to
play for,” Seattle linebacker
Bobby Wagner said on
Monday.
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our shoulder, and you know,
we’re not a team that needs a
chip on our shoulder.”
The Seahawks did not get
back to the Super Bowl for
a third straight season after
Sunday’s 31-24 loss at Caro-
lina when a second-half rally
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They were not able to
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try to erase the bitter feelings
of what took place a year
ago when the Seahawks
ended up 1 yard short of a
second consecutive Super
Bowl title.
The
two-time
NFC
champs are done with foot-
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time since the end of the
2012 season when this group
of Seahawks were experi-
encing the postseason for the
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divisional round at Atlanta.
Back then Seattle was on
the rise. Now they are a team
still with a young and talented
core, but facing important
free agent decisions and an
offensive transition to be
based more around quarter-
back Russell Wilson.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll
acknowledged again on
Monday the aftereffect
Super Bowls create, both
when Seattle won two years
ago and the crushing nature
of last year’s loss to New
England.
The loss to the Patriots
was a legitimate burden that
took time for Seattle to shake
and by the time the Seahawks
found a path to success this
season, just getting to the
playoffs was the goal.
“We were trying to catch
up the whole time,” Carroll
said. “It was very much like
yesterday. We were catching
up the whole season.”
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(92/8-
TION: Seattle made a clear
shift at midseason to become
less run-oriented and based
more around Wilson and the
pass game. The results were
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seven games of the regular
season, Wilson had 24 touch-
down passes, one intercep-
tion and a 132.8 passer rating.
He set franchise records for
yards passing in a season at
4,024 and touchdown passes
with 34.
Wilson is now the focal
point of Seattle’s offense and
will be even more so with
the potential that Marshawn
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nearing its end.
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Rawls rolled his way through
the Seahawks locker room
on Monday as he continues
to recover from a broken left
ankle suffered in December.
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rookie that if Seattle does
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will be the one to take over.
Rawls, who rushed for 830
yards, said he expects to be
ready in plenty of time for
next season.
and Tristen Sanguino came
off the bench in favor of
freshman Sebastian Garcia,
sophomore Seth Cranston
and freshman Trent Durfey
By SAM BARBEE
in an effort to improve
East Oregonian
the offensive production.
Umatilla (8-9, 1-2) was yet
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Desperate for a win, the play and hadn’t scored 40
Umatilla boys basketball since a 40-29 win over
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the Vale Vikings 47-38
“We were just trying
Saturday night at The Pit.
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Umatilla coach Derrek said. “We just weren’t
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lineup Saturday, leaving the any offensive production.
seniors on the bench. Juan We scored 30-something
Coria, Aaron Simmons points the last couple of
games and just went with
some younger kids to kinda
send a message to the older
kids that, ‘Hey, you’re job’s
on the line,’ kinda thing.
“I just wanted to see
them respond, and I thought
they responded well today.”
With
the
Umatilla
starters on the bench, Vale
(2-12, 0-3) jumped to a
quick 6-2 lead, but a 6-0 run
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the home Vikings in front
8-6 heading into the second
period.
There, Umatilla built a
Staff photo by
Sam Barbee
See BOYS HOOPS/2B
Girls Basketball Roundup
Umatilla takes lead in EOL
Umatilla
junior
guard
looks for
a team to
pass to
as Vale’s
Daillie
Johnson
defends
during
Umatilla’s
36-25 win
Saturday
at The Pit.
Defensive battle leads to
low-scoring win over Vale
By SAM BARBEE
East Oregonian
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Vikings girls basketball scored only six points
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slow start.
“It was just two great teams going at it,”
senior Sidney Webb said.
In all, the blue and orange-clad Vikings
used an exceedingly rare six-point play in the
third quarter to down the black and silver-clad
Vikings 36-25 at The Pit despite having no
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Vale’s Alisa Burkhardt led all scorers with
10 points, and Aleesha Watson led Umatilla
with eight. With the win, Umatilla (13-4, 3-0)
takes a one-game lead over Vale (10-6, 2-1) in
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straight games.
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the second quarter. Umatilla shot 15 percent
in that half and Vale shot just 14 percent. Both
teams were heavily pressuring the ball and not
allowing either offense to be comfortable or get
good looks.
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groove in the third quarter.
“We’re usually a second half team,” Webb
said.
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of the game — with 5:52 on the clock, and two
See GIRLS HOOPS/2B
Staff photo by
Sam Barbee
NBA
Prep Wrestling
Blazers bounce back, beat Wizards
Bulldogs
win Oregon
Classic
By STEPHEN WHYNO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Damian
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that the Portland Trail Blazers should
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to the Philadelphia 76ers. Then he sat
down and watched it.
What he saw
wasn’t pretty, and
other
teammates
made sure they
Portland
didn’t forget. When
they got onto the
court
Monday
against the Wash-
ington
Wizards,
the Trail Blazers
showed it with a Washington
108-98 bounce-back
victory to close out
their road trip.
“We just really thought about
it more, not from a basketball side
just how you approach the game and
you’ve got to respect each team,”
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points. “Winning three (in a row) and
then getting beat by a team that only
had four wins — the ability to come
back and lock in and not dwell on what
had happened is big for us.”
Not every problem that surfaced
Saturday night in Philadelphia was
solved, and Mason Plumlee said a
25-point loss to any team leaves a bad
taste. But losing by that much to the
NBA’s worst team served as something
of a wake-up call for the Trail-Blazers.
Against the Wizards, the shots were
falling, especially from 3-point range,
and there was more attention to detail
and less hesitation. The result was a
dominant performance from the back-
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Five Hermiston
wrestlers go
undefeated for
the weekend
East Oregonian
108
98
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Washington Wizards forward Jared Dudley (1) has his shot blocked
by Portland Trail Blazers forward Al-Farouq Aminu (8) in the first half
of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, in Washington.
McCollum (25) and Portland’s fourth
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“We played with energy from the
jump and we competed,” said Plumlee,
who recorded his 12th double-double
of the season and added a career-best
seven assists. “Energy, just a mindset
defensively, getting stops. I think if you
take the second quarter out of it, this
was one of our better defensive games
on this road trip.”
The Blazers’ defense took a toll
on Eastern Conference player of the
week John Wall, who lit up the Boston
Celtics for 36 points Saturday. Wall
scored just nine points on 4-of-17
shooting.
“I was frustrated,” Wall said. “I had
some good looks that I had from the
last games, and I wasn’t making them.
It was frustrating to me because I feel
like I was letting my team down.”
Garrett Temple, who addressed the
crowd before the game to commem-
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Washington with 18 points. Marcin
Gortat had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wizards fell victim to two big
runs by the Blazers and had one of their
own. Portland took a 17-point lead in
the second quarter before the Wizards
chipped away and took the lead early
in the second half.
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3-pointers and the Blazers went on a
23-1 run to take a stranglehold of the
game. It slipped away quickly for the
Wizards.
“In the third quarter we reverted
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REDMOND — The
Hermiston Bulldogs domi-
nated the weekend competi-
tion at the Oregon Classic in
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in Class 5A.
Hermiston came into
Saturday’s competition as the
top seed in 5A and defeated
Central 71-6 and then Crater
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match, where the team
defeated Hillsboro 45-12 for
the title.
“Our guys wrestled hard,
exactly how we want to,”
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said. “We want to dominate
and we want to put pressure
on guys and break ‘em,
and thats what they did this
weekend.”
Of the eight wrestlers who
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went undefeated and two
did it without forfeits. Valen
Wyse (four pins), Andy
Wagner (four pins, technical
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pins) each went 6-0 to lead
Hermiston.
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See WRESTLING/2B