SPORTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2017
1B
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MISSION
BOARDMAN
Golden Eagles sweep Cougars
Pios win
physical
match-up
Nixyaawii boys,
girls earn key
league victories
East Oregonian
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
As
outdoor
temperatures
plunged into the single digits
Thursday night, hundreds of people
headed indoors at the Nixyaawii
Community School gymnasium for
a pair of key Old Oregon League
match-ups between the Nixyaawii
Golden Eagles and Echo Cougars.
The girls game had larger impli-
cations, as both
the Cougars and
Golden
Eagles Girls’ Hoops
stood with eight
victories overall
and a 1-0 record
Echo
in league play.
However a unusu-
ally cold shooting
performance by
Echo mixed with
a strong fi rst half
Nixyaawii
from Nixyaawii
was enough to
extend the Golden
Eagles unbeaten
streak to nine games with a 36-31
victory over Echo on Thursday.
Nixyaawii (9-0, 2-0 OOL) was
able to get the victory without star
point guard Mary Stewart, who
missed the game due to illness.
In her place, junior guard Milan
Schimmel and Kaitlynn Melton led
the way as Schimmel tallied a team-
high 17 points and six assists and
Melton added 14 points. Nixyaawii
coach Jeremy Maddern said he was
very pleased with Schimmel’s play
in Stewart’s absence.
“She’s (Schimmel) a special
talent and I think it kind of shows
that we’re not a one-person team
with just Mary,” Maddern said.
“We have that double-headed
monster there and it will only make
us better as we go along. And us
playing this game and getting the
win without Mary was big for us
psychologically because we know
we’re a good team with or without
her, but we’re obviously still better
with her.”
Twelve of Schimmel’s 17 points
came in the fi rst half alone and
Nixyaawii shot 41 percent from the
fl oor. Echo (8-3, 1-1) dug itself into
a deep hole with a poor shooting
performance in the half, hitting
just 1-22 (4 percent) shots from the
fl oor as the Cougars trailed 25-6 at
the break.
But in the second half, it was
BOARDMAN — The
Mac-Hi Pioneers shut the
Riverside Pirates out in the
fi rst
quarter
and hung on Boys’ Hoops
for a 34-24
non-league
basketball win
Mac-Hi
on Thursday.
Mac-Hi
(5-5)
led
13-0 after the
fi rst
quarter
and 23-5 at
Riverside
halftime
as
Riverside (4-6)
settled
for
outside shots
that weren’t falling.
“We can’t run an offense,”
said Riverside coach Clair
Costello of his team, which
is without point guard Noe
See PIOS/2B
34
24
31
36
NBA
Portland
extends
streak over
Lakers
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Kaitlynn Melton (20), of Nixyawii, grabs the ball as she and Laci Wiggins, of Echo, battle for a re-
bound during Thursday’s game in Mission.
a much different ball game. Echo
found some offense out of the
break as Taylor Swaggart nailed
three 3-pointers and scored 11
total points in the third quarter to
cut the Cougars’ defi cit to 33-17
at the end of three. Echo coach
Michael Swanson said that Swag-
gart’s offense — she fi nished with
16 points — really sparked his
Cougars squad on both ends of the
fl oor.
“Taylor’s been hit-and-miss
lately, but she was huge tonight
and I was really impressed with her
and having the courage to hit some
shots,” Swanson said.
Echo continued to close the
gap in the fourth quarter as the
Cougars went 5-11 from the fl oor,
and then held Nixyaawii to just
1-11 shooting in the quarter. But
the Cougars simply ran out of time
in the end to make a full comeback,
though Swanson said he was proud
See GOLDEN EAGLES/2B
NFL
Seahawks look vulnerable without Thomas
Opposing
passers having
their way with
secondary
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Until
a month ago, the Seattle
Seahawks never knew what
it was like without Earl
Thomas on the fi eld.
Now they’re fi nding out
how much Thomas means
to everything they try and
accomplish defensively.
“Earl’s a unique player.
He’s an extraordinary player,
he’s proven that,” coach Pete
Carroll said. “No matter what
position a guy plays, you
miss that unique quality.”
Since
Thomas
was
injured early in Seattle’s
Week 13 win over Carolina,
the Seahawks have become
vulnerable against the pass.
In the fi nal four games of
the regular season, the oppo-
nent passer rating against
the Seahawks was 105.0.
In the fi rst 12 games, it was
77.9. And while that fi nal
four-game stretch included
NFC Wildcard
Detroit
Seattle
Lions
Seahawks
(9-7)
(10-5-1)
• Saturday, 5:15 p.m.
• at Century Link Field
• TV: NBC
stellar games by Aaron
Rodgers and Carson Palmer
in a pair of Seattle losses, it
also included performances
by Jared Goff, Case Keenum
and Colin Kaepernick that
didn’t lead to wins against
Seattle but were probably
better than most expected.
Now come the pass-happy
Detroit Lions in the NFC
wild-card round on Saturday.
“I wouldn’t say vulner-
able, you know, they’re a
heck of a defense,” Detroit
quarterback Matthew Staf-
ford said. “They do a great
job. Obviously, Earl brings
a mentality to them. He’s an
extremely aggressive player.
Trusts his eyes probably more
than any safety I’ve ever seen
and you know, the young guy
they’ve got fi lling in for him
doesn’t as much, but I mean
PORTLAND — CJ McCo-
llum had 27 points and Damian
Lillard returned from a sprained
ankle with 21
points and 10
assists to lead
the Portland
Trail Blazers Los Angeles
to a 118-109
victory over the
Los Angeles
Lakers
on
Thursday
Portland
night.
E v a n
Turner scored
15 of his 20
in the fourth quarter as Port-
land secured its ninth straight
regular-season victory over the
See BLAZERS/2B
109
118
Seattle’s
Jeremy
Lane (20)
tackles a
San Fran-
cisco play-
er during
Sunday’s
game in
Santa
Clara, Calf.
AP Photo/Marcio
Jose Sanchez
See SEAHAWKS/2B
Sports shorts
EOU women’s soccer coach steps
down for job at Portland State
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon women’s
soccer head coach Justin Wagar announced he
is stepping down after two years at the helm to
take an assistant coach job at Portland State.
In his two seasons, Wagar led
the Mountaineers to a 26-9-4
overall record. That mark is good
enough for second all-time in
wins and fi rst all-time in winning
percentage for the EOU program.
In Wagar’s fi rst season in 2015,
Wagar
the Mountaineers compiled a
school-record 17 victories after winning just
three games in the season prior.
“It was a special opportunity to work at EOU
and in La Grande,” Wagar told EOUSports.
com. “I’m thankful for the opportunity I had to
work with great young ladies on the team and I
know they’ll continue to succeed in the future.”
“I have pretty broad
interests education,
energy, transportation,
space. I’ll go see what
those things hold and
see if there’s a way
to make a difference
there.“
— Ashton Eaton
Two-time Olympic decathlon
champion on his plans for retire-
ment. The former Oregon Duck
and his Olympic-bronze winning
wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who
met while competing at Oregon
and live in Eugene, announced
their retirement on Wednesday.
Beavers add two to football staff
CORVALLIS (AP) — Oregon State
has named Jason Phillips its passing game
coordinator and wide receivers coach, and John
Rushing its safeties coach.
Phillips, who played at Houston before fi ve
seasons in the NFL, spent last
season as wide receivers coach
at Kansas after three years as the
co-offensive coordinator at SMU.
Rushing spent last season
with the Los Angeles Rams as a special teams
and defensive consultant. Before that, he spent
seven years with the Green Bay Packers. He
has also coached at Utah State, Montana State
and Boise State.
Rushing played at Washington State, where
he was a four-year starter at defensive back.
Beavers coach Gary Andersen also tweaked
some of the coaching assignments within his
existing staff, including moving Dave Baldwin
to tight ends coach.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1985 — Dan Marino passes
for a record 421 yards and four
touchdowns to lead the Miami
Dolphins to a 45-28 victory
over the Pittsburgh Steelers in
the AFC championship game.
1994 — Nancy Kerrigan
is attacked after practice at the
U.S. fi gure skating champion-
ships in Detroit. Shane Stant
clubs Kerrigan on the knee and
fl ees the scene.
2014 — Jameis Winston
throws a 13-yard touchdown
pass to Kelvin Benjamin
with 13 seconds left and No.
1 Florida State beat No. 2
Auburn 34-31 to win the last
BCS national championship
game.
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