SPORTS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016
1B
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PENDLETON
PENDLETON
Buckaroos’ Smith signs with Saints T-Wolves
win barn
burner
Pendleton senior to continue
basketball career at Saint
Martin’s University
Pendleton
seniors Ca-
den Smith,
left, and
Haley Greb,
right, sign
national
letters of
intent with
St. Martin’s
and Colora-
do St., re-
spectively,
on Wednes-
day during
a ceremony
at Pendle-
ton High
School’s
Warberg
Court.
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
For as long as Caden Smith can remember, he has
dreamt of playing college basketball.
And on Wednesday evening, seated at a table in
front of dozens of family, friends, and teachers at
Warberg Court in the Pendleton High School gymna-
sium, Smith’s dream became reality. Smith, the Pend-
leton senior and reigning Columbia River Conference
Player of the Year, put pen to paper and signed his
National Letter of Intent to play college basketball
at Saint Martin’s University — a NCAA Division II
school in Lacey, Washington.
See SMITH/2B
Staff photo by
Eric Singer
BMCC closes out
regular season by
beating Yakima Valley
East Oregonian
YAKIMA, Wash. — The Blue
Mountain volleyball team got a
great tune-up for the NWAC Cham-
pionships in its regular-season
fi nale on Wednesday when Yakima
See T-WOLVES/2B
STANFIELD
Tigers see themselves in Wolverines
No. 2 Stanfi eld
hosts No. 10
Santiam in
quarterfi nals
Stanfi eld’s
Thyler
Monkus
locks up
with Cen-
tral Linn’s
Mason
Sloan in
the Tigers’
55-14 win
against
the Co-
bras on
Friday,
Nov. 4, in
Stanfi eld.
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
The Stanfi eld Tigers have
enjoyed one of the largest
home-fi eld advantages in the
state this season, posting a
6-0 record at Horyna Athletic
Complex while outscoring
their foes 282-103.
The No. 2 Tigers (9-1)
continued that home domi-
nance with a 55-14 win over
No. 15 Central Linn in the
fi rst round of the 2A football
state playoffs that was their
fi rst home postseason game
in 69 years.
The Tigers show no signs
of slowing down coming
into Friday’s quarterfi nals
match-up with No. 10
Santiam (7-3), but head coach
Davie Salas and his players
know fi rsthand how quickly
home-fi eld advantage can
evaporate in the playoffs.
Salas said he sees a lot of
similarities between the 2016
Santiam Wolverines and the
2015 Stanfi eld Tigers, which
won the program’s fi rst two
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
playoff games in more than
half a century, and did it on
the road to reach the state
semifi nals.
Santiam’s playoff drought
wasn’t nearly as long lived,
but the Wolverines still tasted
the fi rst postseason success of
any of their playing careers
when the team went into
Lost River and upset the No.
Los Angeles
Clippers
center
DeAndre
Jordan, bot-
tom, dunks
as Portland
Trail Blazers
forward
Noah Von-
leh defends
during the
fi rst half
of an NBA
basketball
game,
Wednes-
day, Nov. 9,
2016, in Los
Angeles.
AP Photo/
Mark J. Terrill
7 Raiders 35-20 last week.
It was their fi rst playoff win
since 2008.
“I just see a hungry team,”
Salas said of Dennis Dunlea’s
Raiders. “They obviously
went down to Lost River and
were able to beat a pretty
good Lost River team, so I
know they’re well coached.
“They say the hunter
sometimes becomes the
hunted and we’re the hunted
right now. When you get
to the quarterfi nals and the
semifi nals there’s not much
of a difference between the
teams. They’re here for a
reason and we’re going to go
out there and play hard.”
The Wolverines and
Tigers also share some more
tangible similarities, one
being that both rely on strong
running attacks to score their
points, although quarterback
is Riley Nicot’s role is much
more of the traditional
passer than Stanfi eld’s Dylan
Grogan.
“They pound the ball and
they’ve got the hogs up front
to block for them,” Salas
Football
Santiam
Stanfi eld
Wolverines
Tigers
(7-3)
(9-1)
• Friday, 6 p.m.
• at Horyna Athletic Complex
• Radio: KOHU 1360 AM
said. “They’ve got some
good running backs, and they
throw the ball pretty well.”
Sophomore
Trevor
Tinney scored three rushing
touchdowns and Lost River,
Jordan Lanham had a touch-
down receiving and rushing,
and the defense also limited
Lost River to just 142 yards
rushing on 36 carries.
Stanfi eld tagged the
Wolverines’
Tri-River
Conference fellows Central
Linn for 481 total yards with
294 coming on the ground.
“I feel like we match up
pretyy good,” Salas said of
the battle in the trenches.
“They’ve got some big guys
up front and they get after
it, and we just need to be
able to keep running the ball
between the tackles.”
That could be a little
tougher this week as starting
center Abraham Gomez,
a senior who also starts
See TIGERS/2B
NBA
Clippers roll over Trail Blazers
By BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Blake
Griffi n had 22 points and 13
rebounds, Chris Paul added 19
points, and the Los Angeles
Clippers rolled past the Port-
land Trail Blazers 111-80 on
Wednesday night to improve
to an NBA-best 7-1 with their
fourth straight win.
It was the Clippers’
second victory over the
Blazers this season.
This one was never close.
The Clippers stunned
Portland from the opening
tip, shooting 59 percent in the
a n y o n e
fi rst quarter.
in
double
They built a
fi gures until
32-point lead
Portland Los Angeles S h a b a z z
in the fi rst
Napier
hit
half
when
a 3-pointer
Griffi n had
with under 2
17 points.
Los Angeles’ bench minutes left in the game. He
opened the second quarter led the team with 11 points.
on a 14-2 run to go up 50-18
DeAndre Jordan had 16
before extending the lead to points and nine rebounds
61-32 at halftime.
and J.J. Redick added 10
Portland’s Damian Lillard, points for the Clippers, who
the NBA’s second-leading sat their starters for good
scorer at 32.8 points, was held at 3:54 of the third while
to eight points. CJ McCollum, owning a 44-point lead.
who was averaging 22.9
Before the starters left,
points, also scored eight.
they began the quarter with
The Blazers didn’t have a 17-3 run that stretched the
80
111
Clippers’ lead to 78-35. Each
of the fi ve starters scored in
the spurt. Paul and Luc Mbah
a Moute each had a 3-pointer
and Jordan slammed down a
two-handed fastbreak dunk
off Griffi n’s alley-oop pass.
It was one of three
signature dunks by Jordan
in the period that ended with
consecutive 3-pointers by
reserves Marreese Speights
and Austin Rivers, leaving
the Clippers ahead 93-50.
The Clippers’ defense held
Portland to 35 shooting. The
Blazers made just 6 of 30 3-point
attempts as their three-game
winning streak got snapped.
Sports shorts
Tony Romo a full-go in practice
FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Tony Romo has
been listed as a full practice participant for the
fi rst time since the Dallas quarterback broke a
bone in his back in a preseason game in August.
The 36-year-old Romo ran with the scout
team in practice Wednesday.
Rookie Dak Prescott remains the
starter with the Cowboys (7-1)
surging to the best record in the
NFC. Dallas visits Pittsburgh (4-4)
on Sunday.
Coach Jason Garrett said the
Romo
starting quarterback gets almost all
the reps with the fi rst team in practice, and that
plan was no different this week.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger,
who went 13-0 in the regular season as the
starter when he was a rookie in 2004, said it
would be “really hard to kind of change that
position” with the Cowboys rolling the way
they are.
“Somehow, someway,
we are going to fi nd
a way not to be 0-16.
That’s not where we
want to be. We don’t
want to be 0-9 right
now to be very honest
with you.“
— Hue Jackson
Cleveland Browns head coach
says he remains upbeat despite
his team’s struggles this season.
The Browns slide will likely con-
tinue on Thursday when they host
the Ravens, a game where the
Browns are 10-point underdogs.
Voters overwhelmingly reject
Chargers stadium measure
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Voters have
overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would
have raised $1.15 billion from increased hotel
occupancy taxes to help pay for a new stadium
for the San Diego Chargers.
Measure C, which was written
by the Chargers without input
from City Hall, the powerful
tourism industry or other stake-
holders, was defeated 57 percent to 43 percent.
It needed 66.7 percent to pass. The measure
would have increased the hotel tax to help
pay for a $1.8 billion stadium and convention
center annex downtown near Petco Park.
Team chairman Dean Spanos, whose
attempt to move the Chargers to the Los
Angeles suburb of Carson angered fans and
was rebuffed by fellow NFL owners, said in a
statement Wednesday that he will consider his
options
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1990 — The Phoenix
Suns shatter the NBA record
with 107 points in the fi rst
half of a 173-143 victory over
the Denver Nuggets.
1996 — Miami Dolphins
quarterback Dan Marino
surpasses 50,000 career yards
passing in a 37-13 win over
Indianapolis. Marino also
reaches 4,000 completions,
another NFL fi rst, with his
10th completion of the game.
2007 — Miami ends its
70-year stay at the famed
Orange Bowl with the
biggest shutout loss in the
stadium’s history a 48-0
rout to Virginia.
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