Page 2B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Prep Basketball
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
PATRIOTS’ DAY
High schooler
scores 92 points
The Associated Press
CHINO HILLS, Calif. —
LaMelo Ball, the younger
brother of UCLA’s star
freshman Lonzo Ball, scored
92 points — 41 in the fourth
quarter — to help Chino
Hills beat Los Osos 146-123
on Tuesday night.
He only had 29 points
at halftime. He made 37
of 61 shots from the floor,
including 7 of 22 from behind
the 3-point line, hit 11 of 14
free throws and had seven
assists and five rebounds.
Their
other
brother
New England
Patriots quar-
terback Tom
Brady holds
up Super Bowl
trophies along
with head
coach Bill Beli-
chick, right, and
team owner
Robert Kraft,
left, during a
rally Tuesday,
Feb. 7, 2017, in
Boston, to cele-
brate Sunday’s
34-28 win over
the Atlanta Fal-
cons in the NFL
Super Bowl 51
football game
in Houston.
LiAngelo, who leads Chino
Hills in scoring, sat out due
to an ankle injury. LaMelo
and LiAngelo are both
committed to UCLA like
their older brother Lonzo,
who is projected to be a
top-five pick in the 2017
NBA draft.
Chino Hills (26-1) had
won 60 straight games before
losing to Oak Hill Academy
last Saturday — in which
LaMelo scored 36 points.
Lonzo tweeted: “Well
I mean that’s one way to
bounce back after a loss ... I
see you lil bro.”
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
PREPS: Umatilla girls struggle from the field, fall to Vale
Continued from 1B
COVE 44, HELIX 35 —
At Cove, Helix pulled within
three points to start the fourth
quarter but couldn’t get any
closer as it fell in Old Oregon
League boys basketball
action on Monday.
Trent Taylor scored a
game-high 25 points while
hitting five three-pointers to
lead Cove (6-13, 4-8 OOL),
and Ezekiel Elmer added 12
points.
Helix (4-13, 3-8) didn’t
have any players reach double
digits and was led by John
Shaw with nine points and
Justin Williams with eight.
Helix will host Powder
Valley on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
———
HHS
4 6 12 13 — 35
CHS
10 7
8 19 — 44
HELIX — J. Shaw 9, J. Williams 8, G.
Christman 6, T. Fehrenbacker 6, G. Newt-
son 4, S. Carlson 2.
COVE — T. Taylor 25, E. Elmer 12, B.
Witten 4, A. Schlegel 2, L. Moore 1.
3-pointers — HHS 0; CHS 5. Free throws
— HHS 1-4; CHS 13-16. Fouls — HHS 13;
CHS 10.
NYSSA 72, UMATILLA
66 — At Nyssa, the Umatilla
Vikings lost their second
game in league play with
a close loss on the road at
Nyssa on Monday night.
“(Nyssa) came out hot and
played well on their senior
night,” Umatilla coach Derek
Lete said. “In the first half
they brought more energy,
then in the fourth quarter it
was pretty back-and-forth
but we just kind of ran out of
time at the end.”
Kaden Webb led all
scorers with 28 points for
Umatilla.
———
UHS
14 12 19 19 — 66
NHS
16 20 20 14 — 72
UMATILLA — K. Webb 28, J. Maret 9,
S. Garcia 8, T. Durfey 7, T. Morris 5, M.
Garcialazo 2.
NYSSA — J. Fuentes 20, B. Thompson 13,
P. Chavez 10, O. Tellez 10, D. McIntosh 6, A.
Gonzalez 6, J. Ortiz 3, I. Hernandez 2.
3-pointers — UHS 7, NHS 10. Free throws
— UHS 9-11, NHS 10-15. Fouls — UHS 15,
NHS 15. Fouled out — A. Gonzalez (NHS).
GIRLS BASKETBALL
VALE 40, UMATILLA
29 — At Vale, Aleesha
Watson’s
double-double
wasn’t enough to remedy
Umatilla’s poor night from
the field in an Eastern Oregon
League loss on Tuesday night.
Watson finished with 15
points and 11 rebounds, but
the Vikings (6-15, 1-7 EOL)
shot just 17 percent from the
field to lose their seventh
game in a row. No other
statistics were reported.
Umatilla will close out
the season at home and play
Riverside on Friday at 6 p.m.
and Vale on Saturday at 4 p.m.
LA
GRANDE
69,
MAC-HI 45 — At
Milton-Freewater,
La
Grande pulled away in the
second half to beat Mac-Hi in
Greater Oregon League girls
basketball on Monday night.
The Tigers used a 12-6
run to go up 23-22 at halftime
and continued to score at a
2-to-1 clip and outscored the
Pioneers 46-23 in the second
half.
Sydney Richwine led
Mac-Hi (1-14, 0-3 GOL)
with 13 points, eight
rebounds and four steals, and
McKenna Yensen added nine
points and seven rebounds.
Details were not available
for La Grande (9-9, 2-2).
Mac-Hi is scheduled
for three more games this
week with a home game on
Wednesday against Ontario
at 3:30 p.m. and road games
at Baker and La Grande on
Thursday and Friday.
———
LGHS
11 12 20 26 — 69
M-H
16 6
9 14 — 45
MAC-HI — S. Richwine 13, M. Yensen
9, S. Earls 6, B. Jones 6, B. Smiley 5, B.
Hernandez 5, M. Martinez 1, B. Garcia.
3-pointers — M-H 3. Free throws — M-H
10-24. Fouls — M-H 17.
COVE 44, HELIX 30 —
At Cove, a big first quarter
gave the Leopards enough
room to hold off the Grizzlies
on Monday in an Old Oregon
League girls basketball game.
Kailey Mize scored six
points and have five steals to
lead Helix (8-9, 4-7 OOL),
but the Grizzlies had 29
turnovers in the game.
Details for Cove were not
available.
Helix will host Powder
Valley on Thursday at 6 p.m.
———
HHS
6 10
5
9 — 30
CHS
18 6 12
8 — 44
HELIX — K. Mize 6, E. Fehrenbacker 6,
C. Bennett 5, H. Christman 4, A. Krol 3, M.
Tullis 3, A. Wood 3.
3-pointers — HHS 3. Free throws — HHS
5-11. Fouls — HHS 7.
BLAZERS: Portland’s Evan Turner breaks hand in third quarter
Continued from 1B
McCollum said. “I tried to
split (the double team), and
get to the free-throw line and
get to my sweet spot.”
McCollum released his
runner at the free-throw
line and it swished through.
Dallas, which was without
a time-out, managed only
Devin Harris’ long heave
from three-quarter court that
wasn’t close.
Damian Lillard added 29
points for the Blazers, who
tied their season series with
the Mavericks at 2-2 — each
team winning twice on the
others’ home floor.
Barnes led the Mavericks
with 26 points and Matthews
added 23.
Portland led 101-89 with
7:19 to go before the Maver-
icks answered the Blazers’
13-0 run with one of their
own. Neither team led by
more than two points in the
final five minutes.
Nowitzki’s 3 with 38.9
seconds left gave Dallas a
108-107 lead and prompted
a fist pump from the veteran,
who was coming off four
games of below double
figures for only the second
time since his rookie season.
“The shot-making at the
end was just vintage,” coach
Rick Carlisle said. “It was
breathtaking.”
But McCollum was just
getting started. He hit a short
jumper, then answered a
Devin Harris counter with a
three-point play to make it
112-110 with 12.3 seconds
to play before Nowitzki hit
another long ball.
“You’re just hoping that’s
‘Game’.” said Nowitzki of
his last 3. “But three seconds
in this league is a long time.
I’ve obviously seen a lot of
stuff happen. McCollum
made a heck of a play.”
A BAD BREAK
Forward Evan Turner
suffering a broken right hand
in the third quarter after
scoring 11 points. He left
with 5:08 to play and did not
return.
Turner was diagnosed
with a broken third meta-
carpal bone. Neither he nor
coach Terry Stotts could
gauge how long he would be
out, but Turner was told after
the game he likely would not
need surgery.
“All I saw was I ran into
Harrison Barnes,” Turner
said. “It didn’t feel like crazy
pain, more like numbing a
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Portland Trail Blazers’ Maurice Harkless (4) maintains
control of the ball on the way to the basket under pres-
sure from Dallas Mavericks’ Yogi Ferrell, right, during
the first half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Tues-
day, Feb. 7, 2017.
little bit. I just went back out
there and I caught the ball. I
couldn’t feel any type of grip
or anything like that. That
was pretty much it.”
With Turner out and Allen
Crabbe in foul trouble, it was
left to Lillard and McCollum
to carry the Blazers’ offense.
“We’ll miss him,” Lillard
said of Turner. “I think what
he brings to the table is why
we signed him. It’s some-
thing that it’ll be hard to get
from one other person, but
it’ll have to be a collective
effort from guys having to
step up in his shoes.”
TIP-INS
Trail Blazers: During their
big 16-2 run in the second
quarter, both McCollum and
Plumlee scored on alley-oop
dunks. McCollum’s came
directly off an inbounds
pass from the right wing. ...
After shooting just 4-for-20
for 13 points in the Blazers’
108-104 loss to the Maver-
icks on Friday, Lillard scored
22 points in the first half and
needed only six shots to make
his first four field goals.
Mavericks: Seth Curry
injured his left shoulder in
a collision with Portland’s
Mason Plumlee with 8:49 left
in the third quarter. He went to
the locker room but returned
to the game four minutes
later and finished with four
points. . Nowitzki moved
into 10th place all-time in
field goals with 10,517. Also,
his two blocked shots gave
him 1,200 for this career, the
BULLDOGS: Hermiston still exploring Washington option
Continued from 1B
From the three prior meet-
ings, Hermiston was drawn
into the top classification in
both a 6-class and 5-class
models, playing in a league
with seven or eight other
teams in the Portland area.
By attending, Usher’s
goal was to give testimony
to the committee on what
Hermiston feels is the best
move for its student athletes,
and to jump-start some
conversation to help find a
better fit for Hermiston in
the reclassification models.
None of what he
suggested made it into the
current options put forth by
the OSAA.
The three proposals
— 6-class, 5-class, and
football-only models —
were slightly updated at
the meeting, with the only
significant changes being
adding a second option in
the top classifications.
Option one is status quo
from the previous proposals,
with Hermiston remaining
in a nine-team Mt. Hood
Conference in the 6A/5A
levels.
However, the second
option featured the changes,
with Hermiston moving to a
newly-created Inter County
Conference with the likes
of central Oregon schools
Bend, Summit and Moun-
tain View, along with Port-
land-area schools Gresham
and Barlow in the 6A model
and Sandy and Reynolds in
the 5A model.
Usher said that while he
acknowledges the OSAA
for looking at other setups,
the new options were a big
head-scratcher for him and
other school officials from
around the state.
“To be honest, after
communicating with other
athletic directors around
the state, we all got a good
laugh out of it,” he said on
Tuesday. “Our big issue is
in no world is anyone at the
6A level going make Barlow
and Gresham go to Bend
for league games. And then
what rationale are you using
to pick those two schools,
because when you go to
5A proposal now you have
Sandy and Reynolds? Why
not Clackamas, Oregon
City? It’s just confusing.”
While giving his testi-
mony, Usher offered two
suggestions to the committee
that he and the Hermiston
officials supported.
The first, Usher said, was
proposing the OSAA raising
the 6A enrollment cutoff
from the current mark of
1,330 to 1,390, which would
keep Hermiston in the
second-highest classification
and in a league with Pend-
leton, Redmond, Ridgeview,
The Dalles, Hood River, and
Crook County. However,
it was shot down by the
committee.
The second suggestion
Usher offered was for the
OSAA to award Hermiston
with a geographic exception,
allowing the school to stand
pat the way they are currently
in all sports outside of foot-
ball, where they would have
no objection to being in the
6A Mt. Hood Conference.
The geographical waiver
is also what has allowed
Summit and Bend to remain
in Class 5A over the current
classification time block,
even though their enroll-
ments were above the 6A
threshold.
“We have not heard back
yet if it’s a possibility,” Usher
said. “We asked the question
that the exception was good
for Summit and Bend, so
why not for us too?”
The issues that Hermiston
has with these proposals is
the amount of travel and
missed class time that it will
force on its student-athletes.
Usher points out that
with the original proposals
that had Hermiston moving
to the Mt. Hood Conference
for all sports, it would
mean 2,360 miles — nearly
the equivalent of driving
one-way from Portland to
Detroit, Michigan — of
round-trip travel per sport
just for league games and an
average time of six hours on
a bus per trip.
For the new No. 2 options
in the 6A/5A models, it
would mean an average of
nearly seven hours per bus
trip for Hermiston, which is
just not smart for Hermiston
kids, Usher says.
Hermiston is still exploring
an opportunity to leave the
OSAA and join the Wash-
ington Interscholastic Activ-
ities Association (WIAA) to
play in a league with schools
from the Tri-Cities and Walla
Walla, having already made
a presentation to the WIAA
executive committee last
month.
The WIAA tabled a
decision on Hermiston at
that meeting, stating that
the committee needed to do
more research and its own
due diligence before making
a decision, which will likely
be at its next meeting on
March 18-19 in Renton,
Washington.
“We’ve been in contact a
little, but we don’t want to
push the issue too much,”
Usher said. “We know this
has larger ramifications than
just for Oregon and Wash-
ington and if the (OSAA)
and the (WIAA) can come
to an agreement, then we’ll
go from there.”
The OSAA could not be
reached for comment by
press time, though OSAA
Executive Director Peter
Weber told The Oregonian/
OregonLive in December
that they supported Hermis-
ton’s exploration of outside
options, saying “We are still
early in the reclassification
process, so there could
be more iterations of the
proposals, but we wanted the
WIAA to know we are aware
of the situation and support
Hermiston exploring it.”
The next OSAA reclassi-
fication committee meeting
is set for Feb. 27 at the OSAA
offices in Wilsonville.
———
Contact Eric at esinger@
eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0839. Follow him
on Twitter @ByEricSinger.
55th player in NBA history to
reach that figure.
MAKING IT OFFICIAL
After helping the Maver-
icks to a 4-1 record on a
10-day contract, Ferrell
signed his two-year contract
Tuesday, calling it “one of
the happiest days of my life.”
He finished with 12 points
against Portland.
Dallas owner Mark
Cuban said the team didn’t
want to risk having to bid
for Ferrell’s services after
the contract or a subsequent
10-day expired.
“I wasn’t going to find out
(if other teams were inter-
ested),” Cuban said. “There’s
just no reason to find out.”
Ferrell averaged 17 points
and five assists in his first five
games with the Mavericks,
numbers that earned the
endorsement of his fellow
Indiana graduate Cuban.
“It’s a mockery within a
travesty within a transmogri-
fication that he wasn’t NBA
Player of the Week,” Cuban
said.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: Home on
Thursday against the Celtics,
whom they have beaten in
six of the teams’ last eight
meetings.
VIKINGS:
Continued from 1B
Cisneros, a redshirt soph-
omore, is the PSU record-
holder in the 5,000 meters
with his time of 14:43.07
at the UW Invitational that
broke the six-year-old mark
of Andrew Salg by more
than seven seconds and was
a 14-second personal record
for Cisneros. It came 10
weeks after he had set the
school record in the 10,000
meters with a time of 30:29.8
at the NCAA West Regionals
in November.
Robinson, a 2014 Pend-
leton High grad, is also
coming off a bar-raising
effort as the PSU junior beat
his season-best mark in the
high jump with a height of
6 feet, 6.75 inches to win the
Idaho Duals.
He also placed seventh at
the meet in pole vault with
a height of 12-9.5 that is
his season best and second
on the team. Robinson also
holds the Vikings’ top time in
the 1,000 meters this indoor
season at 2:53.76.
The Vikings will close
the regular season at the
three-day Husky Classic
starting Friday. The Big Sky
Indoor Championships will
be held in Pocatello, Idaho
on Feb. 23-25.