SPORTS
Thursday, March 2, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3B
Men’s College Basketball
UCLA quiets Washington to finish out home slate
By BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
PAC-12
LOS ANGELES — Bryce
Alford scored 29 points and No. 3
UCLA routed Washington 98-66
on Wednesday night for its eighth
straight win despite losing starter
TJ Leaf to injury.
Lonzo Ball added 19 points,
seven rebounds and eight assists
for the Bruins (27-3, 14-3 Pac-12),
who improved to 15-1 at home.
They completed a season sweep
of Washington after winning by 41
points on the road last month.
Leaf twisted his left ankle 5
minutes into the game and didn’t
return, but that didn’t hurt the
Bruins. They led by 21 points at
halftime and extended the lead to
42 in the second half.
Noah Dickerson tied his career
high with 23 points for the Huskies
(9-20, 2-15). They have lost 11 in
a row and 13 of 14. Their 20 turn-
overs led to 34 points by the Bruins.
Alford hit three consecutive
3-pointers in the game’s final 5:15.
He finished with eight, one off his
career high, and the Bruins had 14.
Early in the second half, Ball put
on a show. The freshman phenom
took a bounce pass from Thomas
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
UCLA guard Bryce Alford, left, shoots as Washington guard David
Crisp defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball
game, Wednesday, March 1, 2017, in Los Angeles.
Welsh and scored on a fastbreak
layup. He and Alford passed the
ball back and forth before Alford
stepped back in the left corner and
hit a 3. On the Bruins’ next play,
Ball swiped David Crisp, picked up
the ball bouncing low on the court
and dunked. He later made back-to-
back 3-pointers.
The Bruins opened the game
by hitting their first four shots,
including three 3-pointers, for an
11-point lead. They were ahead by
seven when Leaf got hurt.
He stepped on the foot of a
Huskies player as they came down
Washington
#3 UCLA
66
98
from rebounding. Leaf landed on
the court and stayed down until
he was helped up by two staff
members. He limped off with his
arms draped over the staffers and
went into the locker room.
He didn’t return and a team
spokesman said Leaf would be
reevaluated on Thursday.
The Bruins rolled on.
They went on a 16-2 run that
extended their lead to 37-16.
Six players scored in the spurt,
including three points by G.G.
Goloman and a three-point play by
Ike Anigbogu, who both entered
the game after Leaf left. Aaron
Holiday’s alley-oop pass set up
Ball’s dunk.
BIG PICTURE
Washington: The Huskies
continue to be in a major funk, just
one spot out of the bottom of the
Pac-12 standings. Lorenzo Romar
is the longest tenured coach in the
league with 15 years at the helm
and the program faces a long slog
back to respectability. Next week’s
league tourney in Las Vegas is the
end of the Huskies’ season.
UCLA: The Bruins were the
only Pac-12 school to go unde-
feated in February at 7-0, the first
time the school was unbeaten in that
month since the 1994-95 team went
9-0 on its way to winning a record
11th national championship. All
three of their defeats have been in
conference; the third-place Bruins
need a weekend sweep and losses
by first-place Arizona and second-
place Oregon to grab a share of the
league regular season title.
LAKERS NIGHT OUT
Lakers coach Luke Walton,
guard D’Angelo Russell and rookie
Brandon Ingram, who played one
season at Duke, attended the game.
Former Laker and Clipper Lamar
Odom chatted with Walton.
UP NEXT
Washington: Visits Southern
California on Saturday in the
regular season finale.
UCLA: Hosts Washington State
on Saturday in the regular season
finale and last home game for
seniors Alford, Isaac Hamilton and
Jerrold Smith, who has played a
total of 20 minutes this season.
NHL
NFL
Salary cap gets $12 million boost
By BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The NFL salary
cap for the upcoming season will
be $167 million per team, up more
than $12 million over last year.
The league and the NFL Players
Association compile the cap from
specific revenues, and it has risen
annually. It was $143.28 million
two years ago.
This is the fourth consecutive
year the cap has risen at least $10
million.
Player benefits also are included
under the 10-year labor agreement
reached to end the 2011 lockout.
That comes to $37 million per
team, bringing the players’ total
compensation package to over
$200 million per club for the first
time.
In comparison, baseball had
12 teams with luxury-tax payrolls
beyond $167 million in 2016.
Since 2011, the cap has
increased by $47 million.
Also, 2017 is the first year of
a four-season minimum spending
period of 89 percent per club and
95 percent leaguewide.
The added cap room should
have a major impact on teams’
spending when the NFL’s new year
begins next Thursday.
“A lot,” Seahawks general
manager John Schneider said
Wednesday at the NFL combine
in Indianapolis. “It’s an ongoing
process, trying to make sure you
can hang on to your top players all
the time, what we view as our core
players. A lot of times when we do
those deals we’re like: ‘Hey, look,
there’s going to be some tough
decisions that are made. There’s
going to be some guys that have to
leave.’ It’s just part of the game.
“This year in particular I think
you see there’s a huge discrepancy
in terms of cap space with a number
of teams. It’s what the NFL’s about.
It’s about parity, and so you have
those teams that are just going to
be able to that much more than you
possibly can. It’s all about trying to
move those pieces around and try
to stay in the game with the free
agents and your own free agents as
much as you possibly can.”
Pittsburgh GM Kevin Colbert
believes more teams are taking
the path the Steelers usually do of
developing players they draft and
rewarding their own free agents.
“As a result, you’re seeing less
and less quality free agents (on the
market),” Colbert said. “There’s
an inherent danger in that, because
some of the players who are hitting
the market with the number of
dollars that are available might not
be quite worth what they’re going
to get paid because of the supply
and demand.
“I think that it reinforces that
you’re wanting to sign your own
and keep your own.”
Yet, beginning next week, the
money will flow to many free
agents, even though this crop
seems lacking in franchise-type
players.
———
AP Pro Football Writer Arnie
Stapleton in Indianapolis contrib-
uted to this report.
Expansion draft, playoff races keeps
trade deadline day unusually quiet
By JOHN WAWROW
Associated Press
Blame Vegas and an ever-tight-
ening playoff race for turning the
NHL’s trade deadline day into
mostly a dud.
With teams jockeying to stay in
contention and eager to preserve
their protected lists to brace for the
NHL expansion draft in June, there
were only a few notable deals
completed before the deadline
struck Wednesday afternoon.
Officially, the NHL said,
there were 18 trades completed
involving 33 players, the lowest
totals since April 2013, when 17
deals were made involving 30
players. Even so, quantity didn’t
equate to quality on Wednesday,
with 17 of the players dealt having
been placed on waivers at one
point this season.
And of the 18 deals completed,
only 12 involved NHL players.
The others were limited to minor
leaguers.
“Obviously, everybody is
looking at expansion,” Colorado
Avalanche general manager Joe
Sakic said. “It’s a unique year, a
different year. And expansion did
weigh into a lot of teams’ deci-
sions.”
Sakic was at least one of the
GMs able to move a name player.
The Avalanche traded veteran
forward Jarome Iginla to the Los
Angeles Kings for a conditional
fourth-round pick in the 2018
draft. The only other notable move
involved the Detroit Red Wings,
who traded veteran forward
Thomas Vanek to the Florida
Panthers for defenseman Dylan
McIlrath and a conditional third-
round pick in June.
Veteran defenseman Mark
Streit changed teams twice and
stayed in Pennsylvania. First,
Streit was traded by Philadelphia
to Tampa Bay for forward Valtteri
Filppula and two conditional draft
picks. Then the Lightning dealt
Streit to Pittsburgh for a 2018
fourth-round pick. The Boston
Bruins acquired forward Drew
Stafford from Winnipeg.
More notable was the list of
players staying put, including
Arizona’s Shane Doan and Radim
Vrbata,
Buffalo’s
defensive
tandem of Dmitry Kulikov and
Cody Franson, and Avalanche
forwards Matt Duchene and
Gabriel Landeskog.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying,
Sabres general manager Tim
Murray said.
“I couldn’t make a trade,”
Murray said, noting he made
numerous attempts to deal Kulikov
and Franson, both of whom are in
the final years of their contracts.
“Am I disappointed? Of course
I’m disappointed.”
Murray said the Vegas Golden
Knights played a role ahead of
their first season next fall.
In being limited to protecting
only eight players, teams placed an
emphasis on keeping youngsters
because they don’t have to be
exposed in the expansion draft.
One strategy: Exposing aging,
high-priced players in hopes
they’re selected by Vegas.
Red Wings general manager
Ken Holland said the expansion
draft in June and a stagnant salary
cap are reasons teams are turning
to younger players and draft picks,
making it more difficult to make
trades.
“Everybody
understands,
no matter where you are in the
standings the importance of youth
moving through your system,”
Holland said. “It’s all factored
into all of our thinking at the trade
deadline. It’s going to factor into
the expansion draft and it’s going
to factor into the thinking once the
expansion draft is over at the June
entry draft. It’s the league, and it’s
ever evolving.”
The Golden Knights officially
opened for business on Wednesday
when the final installment of
owner Bill Foley’s $500 million
expansion payment was cleared.
Vegas can begin making trades for
draft picks and unsigned prospects
and sign free agents whose college
or European league seasons are
over.
The Canadiens were also
relatively busy, beefing up
their Atlantic Division team by
acquiring checking-line veteran
Dwight King from Los Angeles.
This continued a trend for Montreal
to add toughness to a team that’s
4-2 since Claude Julien replaced
Michel Therrien as coach.
BULLDOGS: Play first round game at Bend on Friday night at 5:30 p.m.
Continued from 1B
Juul had given Hermiston
(14-10) a 4-0 lead, and the
Bulldogs opened the game
on a 9-0 run. Hermiston led
by double-digits much of the
game, but an eight-point spurt
from the Pioneers trimmed
the lead to seven to start the
third quarter. But Hermiston
responded with another nine-
point run and that was the
last trouble they would see
out of the Pioneers.
The
Bulldogs
shot
15-for-32 (46.9 percent) from
the field, but a whopping
72.2 percent (13-18) from
inside the three-point arc
for the No. 2 team out of the
Columbia River Conference.
“We talked about them
jumping on top early, and
putting (Sandy) away early,
and I thought they did a
good job of that,” Rodriguez
said. “We had never seen
them play zone, either, and
they tried to slow us down a
little bit there. But I thought
Maddy (Juul) and Kynzee
(Padilla) did a good job kind
of establishing aggressive-
ness.”
Juul finished with a
game-high 15 points and
nine rebounds, and she
and Padilla each had five
points in the first quarter
as Hermiston broke down
the Sandy zone with lots of
quick, short passes. Padilla
finished with nine points and
nine rebounds, and Jazyln
Romero scored all of her 11
points in the second half.
Rileigh Andreason added
eight points, and Hayden
Meyers had three assists and
a pair of steals.
Sandy got its first point
of the game when Marley
Salveter hit a free throw with
2:07 left in the first quarter,
and no Pioneer finished with
more than four points. Sandy
shot 11-for-47 (23.4 percent)
from the field.
Hermiston took its first
double-digit lead when
senior guard Shaelynn
Gilbert stepped inside the
arc to drain a long jumper
that made it 15-5 with 5:13
to play in the second quarter,
and Andreason had baskets
to answer Sandy later in the
half and make sure the lead
didn’t drop below 12.
Hermiston took a 24-9
lead into the locker room at
halftime, and although the
Pioneers hadn’t shown much
yet, Rodriguez warned the
Bulldogs to be ready for a
second-half push.
It started right away as
Sandy’s Leah Barnett hit a
three-pointer 22 seconds in.
The Bulldogs missed three
shots on the other end, then
Taya Vance scored a putback
and Mattie Burns nailed a
wide open three-pointer in
the corner to cut Hermiston’s
lead to 24-17 after two
minutes.
Rodriguez called a timeout
there, and the Bulldogs were
able to regroup and come
out with Andreason hitting
a short jumper in the lane
to stop Sandy’s run. Padilla
scored a pair of free throws to
make it 28-17, and Romero
then got into the action with
three the hard way to make
Hermiston’s
Maddy Juul
fights for
the ball with
Sandy’s
Makenna
Wells in the
Bulldogs’
53-29 win
against the
Pioneers on
Wednesday
in Hermiston.
Staff photo by E.J.
Harris
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston’s Rileigh Andreason puts up a shot between
Sandy’s Leah Barnett (43) and Makenna Wells in the
Bulldogs’ 53-29 win against the Pioneers on Wednes-
day in Hermiston.
it 31-17 with 4:32 left in the
third. That was the closest
Sandy would get the rest of
the way.
“One of the things we
talk about all the time is
that those first five minutes
of the third quarter are big.
They’re game changers,”
Rodriguez said. “You can
either pull away and get up
big, win big, or they come
back. And (Sandy) came out
with energy, and I just told
the girls in the locker room
I was really proud of the
fact that they took basically
a blow to the stomach
and they responded pretty
quickly with some baskets.
And that’s what we’ll need
here going into Friday and
hopefully next week.”
The Bulldogs did have
a scary moment late in the
game when Gilbert went
down with an ankle injury
and needed to be helped from
the court.
“We’ll see, it’s tough to
tell,” Rodriguez said of her
availability. “Obviously it’s a
pretty bad injury because she
was wearing ankle braces,
like all the girls do. We’ll just
take it from there and we’ll
miss her, but we have very
capable back-ups and one of
the things I like is our bench
is pretty deep.”
Gilbert
would
have
bounce back pretty quickly to
suit up in their next game as
the twelfth-seeded Bulldogs
will be headed to fifth-seeded
Bend on Friday for their
first-round game. Tip-off is
scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
———
SHS
3 6 14
6 — 29
HHS
11 13 14 15 — 53
SANDY — T. Dwyre 4, T. Vance 4, M. Wells
4, H. McKinney 4, L. Barnett 3, M. Burns 3,
M. Salveter 3, C. Brown 2, I. Cabrera 2, I.
Kansala, E. Hutchins, A. Thomas.
HERMISTON — M. Juul 15, J. Romero 11,
K. Padilla 9, R. Andreason 8, S. Gilbert 4, H.
Meyers 2, H. Thompson 2, S. Stefani 2, M.
Wilson, R. Meyers, A. Green.
3-pointers — SHS 2; HHS 2. Free throws
— SHS 5-9; HHS 21-29. Fouls — SHS 21;
HHS 9. Fouled out — M. Wells, H. McKinney
(SHS).
————
Contact
Matt
at
mentrup@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0838.