Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Saturday, November 12, 2016 College Basketball Melson helps No. 14 Gonzaga beat Utah Valley in opener By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski missed almost all last season with a back injury, but he showed few signs of rust as he scored 14 points in the 14th-ranked Bulldogs’ 92-69 victory over Utah Valley on Friday night. “I haven’t been playing for so long,” said Karnowski, who was 7 of 10 from the field and had seven rebounds. “I’m excited to be out there. “It’s a great start for the season,” Karnowski said. “Everyone contributed.” Silas Melson scored 17 points, Jordan Mathews had 16 and Nigel Williams-Goss added 14 points and six assists for Gonzaga, which was 28-8 last season and advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Melson added four assists and two steals. “He was great for us,” Karnowski said. “You will see him rise and shine this season.” Mathews is one of four transfers playing for the Zags, who lost Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer to the NBA after last season. “I can score the basket- ball,” said Mathews, who made four 3-pointers. “That’s what Coach wants me to do.” Conner Toolson scored 19 points and Kenneth Ogbe added 13 for Utah Valley (0-1), which was 12-18 last season. “They are a hard team to play against,” Utah Valley coach Mark Pope said. “This is a hard venue.” Gonzaga outshot the Wolverines 52 percent to 36 percent and dominated the rebounding 52-30. “We’re just a much better team than that,” Pope said. “My guys played hard. “They drilled us in the post,” said Pope, pointing to Gonzaga’s 42-24 advantage on points in the paint. Gonzaga made its first three shots to take an 8-0 lead. Mathews’ 3-pointer, part of a 9-0 run, helped push the Bulldogs’ lead to 28-13. Utah Valley put together a 12-2 run, and consecutive 3-pointers by Toolson and Ogbe cut Gonzaga’s lead to 30-25. It was the closest they would come to the lead. ——— No. 11 INDIANA 103, No. 3 KANSAS 99, OT — At Honolulu, James Blackmon, Jr. scored 22 of his 26 points after halftime to lift Indiana in the Armed Forces Classic. The Hoosiers had five players score in double figures with Thomas Bryant notching a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Curtis Jones had 15 points, OG Anunoby had 13 and Robert Johnson added 10. Indiana trailed by as many as nine points, but shot 50 percent (14 of 28) in the second half which ended in an 87-87 tie. Gonzaga guard Si- las Mel- son (0) shoots against Utah Val- ley guard Jordan Poydras during the second half of an NCAA college bas- ketball game in Spokane, Wash., Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. Gonzaga won 92- 69. No. 10 ARIZONA 65, No. 12 MICHIGAN ST. 63 — At Honolulu, Kadeem Allen took the ball the length of the court and scored with 1.3 seconds left for Arizona in the Armed Forces Classic. Kobi Simmons led the Wildcats with 18 points while Lauri Markkanen scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Allen finished with 10 points. The Wildcats won despite playing without guard Allonzo Trier, who is out for unspecified reasons. Trier was Arizona’s third-leading scorer last season at 14.8 points per game. Michigan State freshman Miles Bridges wowed the crowd with some impressive dunks and he finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. AP Photo/ Young Kwak STANFIELD: Tigers hold Wolverines to 190 total yards Continued from 1B “Santiam came to play today and we had to respond. Sometimes you get punched in the mouth and you’ve got to get back up and keep fighting. My guys kept fighting,” Stanfield coach Davie Salas said. “Hat’s off to (Santiam). They played a great game, had a great game plan. If I was coaching against the Stanfield Tigers I’d eat the clock myself.” The Tigers (10-1) had just two possessions in the first half, and their first was a three-and-out. When Salas called a timeout with 7:18 left in the second quarter after Santiam drove the ball into the red zone, the Wolverines held a full 15-minute advan- tage on the clock. Out of the timeout Santiam quarterback Riley Nicot completed a pair of short passes to move the ball to the Stanfield five-yard line, but one of the Wolver- ines’ several false starts immediately backed them up to the 10. Stanfield’s defense then made the first of its game- changing plays and jarred the ball from Santiam’s runner as he plunged into the line. Monkus jumped on the fumble to give the Tigers possession at their own five with a few ticks past five minutes left in the half. “In that first timeout we just talked about getting our heads together. We didn’t expect (Santiam) to come out and play as hard as they did,” said Grogan. “When they’re that close you want to get the ball back and change the momentum of the game, it was pretty big.” A personal foul on Santiam helped jump-start the Tigers’ drive, and a 17-yard run up the gut by Blankenship got them out near midfield. Facing 3rd-and-11, the Tigers lined up in a run formation and fooled the Wolverines with a screen to Monkus in the middle of the field that picked up the first down and took the ball into Wolverines territory for the first time with 2:21 left in the half. The Tigers were soon looking at 3rd-and-long again on Santiam’s 45, but dialed up the perfect play to catch the Wolverines cheating up to stop the run. Grogan froze the secondary with a fake hand-off, then looked up to see a wide-open Justin Shelby waving his arm as he streaked up the middle Staff photo by E.J. Harris Stanfield’s Brody Woods punts the ball into a thick layer of fog Friday against Santiam in Stanfield. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by E.J. Harris Stanfield’s Thyler Monkus rushes the ball against San- tiam on Friday in Stanfield. Stanfield’s Trevor Shockman wraps up Santiam’s Kraig Arndt on Friday in Stanfield. past the last line of defense. The pass came in just at the edge of Shelby’s reach, and he was able to secure the ball just as a Santiam defender dragged him down from behind at the two-yard line with 33 seconds left in the half. “We’d seen that on film, seen that in their mistakes, so we knew that was going to be a pretty good play,” said Grogan, who finished 5-of-11 for 89 yards and ran the ball 10 times for 61 yards. “I knew where I was going to look with my first read, and I saw him open.” “I seen the safety and he was bout 10 yards under me so I was just throwing my hand up and hoping (Grogan) would see me,” said Shelby. “I was thinking, ‘You drop this ball you’re fired.’” A holding penalty on first down pushed the Tigers back to the 10, but they were back on the shadow of the goal line with two seconds to go after a seven-yard quarterback draw on third down. Needing just two more yards to put his team on top, Grogan called his own number again. He stretched over the line and held onto the ball despite taking a hard hit that opened a gash on the back of his right hand. “We had two seconds left, I knew I had to put it in, it was fourth down,” Grogan said. “All in right there, so once I got stood up I reached over with my long arms.” Enoel Angel kicked the extra point to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead at halftime, and they would have the ball coming out of the break. “I felt like we were in control,” Grogan said. “I knew our defense would stand up and I felt like the guys were into it after that.” Stanfield, which averaged 41.7 points a game coming into Friday, had struggled to get its running game going in the first half against a phys- ical Wolverines front, totaling 56 yards on nine carries. “Once we got everyone into the locker room, our line talked about their jobs, what they needed to do, came out in the second half and was successful,” said Monkus, who had a game-high 103 yards on 14 carries. “Our line did a great job the second half, a lot more room to run.” The Tigers came out and ran the ball 11 times for 56 yards on their first drive, which Blankenship capped with a two-yard plunge to make it 13-0 with 6:58 left in the third quarter. The extra point sailed wide, but the Tigers made sure they wouldn’t need it with a stifling defensive effort that held the Wolver- ines to 71 yards in the second half and 190 for the game. In their last four games the Tigers have allowed just 26 total points, and picked up their second shutout in that span. “We’ve been harping on defense, you know, defense wins you championships,” Salas said. “I think we all know it, at every level … when you play defense you have a chance to win, and that’s the approach that I’m taking around here. In the past Stanfield’s always put up a lot of points but defensively is where we’ve got to take our next step. And I think we’re doing it at the right time.” A major difference for the Tigers in the second half was in the passing game, where Nicot went 3-of-8 with an interception after passing at will in the first half. He finished 10-of-16 for 131 yards. “We ended up going man on man, which helped out a little bit because we were more aware,” said Grogan. “We didn’t expect that out of them in the first half, they were just passing all over us.” Brody Woods had a pair of breakups and intercepted a pass in the end zone with 3:12 left in the game to end Santiam’s final drive. That pass, like several from Nicot in the second half, came under pressure. The defense was led Shelby with two sacks while Jose Garcia and Mario Sanchez each added 1.5. The Tigers would hold the ball the rest of the way and finished out in victory formation. Santiam achieved its goal of winning the time of possession battle by more than seven minutes, but Stanfield held more than a five-minute advantage in the second half. Stanfield finished with 300 yards on offense and carried the ball 33 times for 211 yards. Penalties hurt both teams, and Stanfield finished with eight for 77 yards while Santiam was flagged 13 times for 95 yards. The Tigers were the only 2A team to advance on Friday as all other quarterfinals games will be played today. The Tigers’ semifinal oppo- nent will be the winner of No. 6 Toledo at No. 3 Kennedy. Whichever team it is, the Tigers said they’ll be ready. “We don’t want to be cocky because the job’s not finished,” Shelby said. “So we just go out there and play some football.” ——— SAN 0 0 0 0 — 0 SHS 0 7 6 0 — 13 Scoring plays 2nd Quarter :02 — SHS Dylan Grogan 2 run (Enoel Angel kick), 7-0 3rd Quarter 6:54 — SHS Makiah Blankenship 2 run (kick missed), 13-0 Statistics PASSING — Santiam: Riley Nicot 10-16- 1, 131. Stanfield: Dylan Grogan 5-11-0, 89. RUSHING — Santiam (37-59). Stanfield (33-211, 2 TD): Thyler Monkus 14-103; Dylan Grogan 10-61, TD; Makiah Blankenship 7-34, TD; Justin Keeney 2-13. RECEIVING — Stanfield: Justin Shelby 1-43, Brody Woods 3-34, Thyler Monkus 1-12. BLAZERS: Sacramento takes lead with 11-5 run to start fourth quarter Continued from 1B McCollum added a 19-footer to put Portland in front, but a loose ball foul on the Blazers gave Sacra- mento’s Darren Collison two free throws. He made both, giving the Kings a 120-119 lead with 33.8 seconds left. Cousins said Sacramen- to’s issues have mirrored Lillard’s assessment of his own team. “Throughout this whole season we’ve shown flashes of who we can be, but we’ve got to get past that stage of showing flashes and be the team that we want to be,” Cousins said. Leonard made his first start of the season for the Blazers, who were without forward Al-Farouq Aminu for the second straight game because of a left calf injury. Aminu started the first eight games for the Blazers, averaging 6.4 points and 6.6 rebounds before he was hurt Tuesday night early in Portland’s 124-121 victory over Phoenix. Addressing the media before Friday night’s game, Stotts said Aminu would be re-evaluated after two weeks. Leonard’s thunderous dunk put the Blazers up 32-27 late in the first quarter, and they led by 12 en route to a 62-57 advantage at the break. McCollum led all scorers at halftime with 16 points. Cousins’ fadeaway in the third quarter tied the game at 68, and Gay hit a 3-pointer to put the Kings in front. Lillard nailed a 3 from far outside the arc to give Portland back the lead at 79-76. The Blazers held an 84-83 edge to start the fourth but fell behind 95-88 after a pair of free throws with 6:31 left. Crabbe’s jumper put Portland in front before Lillard hit another 3 to make it 99-95. Cousins’ 3-pointer pulled the Kings to 106-104 with less than a minute to go in regulation, and his layup tied it with 9.7 seconds left. Lillard’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark, sending the game to overtime. Portland was coming off a 111-80 loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. THE TAKEAWAY Kings: Collison returned to the Kings this week after an eight-game suspension to start the season. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic battery after an incident at his Sacramen- to-area home in May. Trail Blazers: Leonard and Cousins got into it in the first quarter and received offsetting technicals. Cousins has been mentioned in numerous trade rumors of late, including some involving the Blazers. ... Portland is 5-0 when Lillard and McCollum both score at least 30 points. BLOWING THE WHISTLE Cousins can’t understand why he’s not getting foul calls. “I don’t understand it,” he said. “I don’t know what I have to do. I just don’t understand it. I have to play through a lot. I’m not really rewarded for it, but I’m just trying to stay mentally strong through it.” PERFECT 10 Lillard has 306 points, most by a Trail Blazers player in the opening 10 games of a season. He’s also the first to score 30 or more points six times in the first 10 games of a season. UP NEXT Kings: Sacramento hosts San Antonio next Wednesday. Trail Blazers: Portland hosts the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.