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Page 4B SPORTS East Oregonian Saturday, April 8, 2017 College Basketball Frank Mason, Kelsey Plum win Wooden Awards By BETH HARRIS Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Frank Mason III of Kansas and Kelsey Plum of Washington won the John R. Wooden Award as national players of the year Friday night. They received their trophies during the third annual College Basketball Awards in a nationally televised show from The Novo in downtown Los Angeles. Mason also claimed the Bob Cousey point guard of the year award. The senior became the first player in Big 12 history to average 20 points and 5 assists in a season. “When you step out on court you have to play with toughness. You can’t be a punk out there, you have to play with pride,” Mason said. “It’s been a good year. I wouldn’t say great because a great year to me is winning it all.” The Jayhawks were eliminated by Oregon in the Elite Eight. Plum became the NCAA Divi- sion I career scoring leader (3,527 points). She also set marks for single-season points (1,109) and career free throws made (912). Mason won the Wooden Award over UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, Villano- va’s Josh Hart, Caleb Swanigan of Purdue and Nigel Williams-Goss of national runner-up Gonzaga. Mason had already earned player of the year honors from The Associated Press and Atlanta Tipoff Club. “I want to thank John R. Wooden,” Mason said, referring to the late UCLA coaching great. “I want to thank my parents, coaches and teammates. Nothing would have meant more to me than the national championship, but I really appreciate it.” Plum claimed the women’s Wooden Award over Connecticut teammates Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson, Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell, and A’ja Wilson of AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez Kansas’ Frank Mason was se- lected as the John R. Wooden Award on Friday as the men’s basketball national player of the year. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File In this March 17, 2017, file photo, Washington’s Kelsey Plum smiles as she runs up court at a practice a day before the team’s first round NCAA tournament college basketball game, in Seattle. Plum won the John R. Wooden Award on Friday night as the women’s basketball national player of the year. national champion South Carolina. Hall of Famer Ann Myers Drysdale presented Plum with the trophy as Wooden’s daughter, Nan, looked on. Plum set the career scoring record with a 57-point effort in one game. “I’m grateful to the University of Washington, my coaches and my teammates. Something like that doesn’t happen without great people,” said Plum, adding that she ate a few packets of applesauce on the sideline that night. “That was what got me through,” he said. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw received the Wooden Legends of Coaching award. Other winners were: — Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski earned the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar center of the year for averaging 12.2 points on 59 percent shooting and 5.8 rebounds. Abdul- Jabbar was on hand to present to the 7-footer from Poland. — Kentucky’s Malik Monk won the Jerry West shooting guard of the year for his SEC-leading field goal percentage of 37.3 and SEC second- best 19.8 scoring average. West presented his namesake trophy. — Villanova’s Josh Hart took home the Julius Erving small forward of the year after leading the Big East with 18.7 points per game. — Johnathan Motley of Baylor accepted the Karl Malone power forward of the year award from the Hall of Famer. MASTERS: Continued from 1B hard Langer (1993, 1985), Ian Woosnam (1991) and Sandy Lyle (1988). On the plus side, three 50-something-year-old players will be hanging around, including past champions Fred Couples (1992) and Larry Mize (1987), as well as Steve Stricker. They’ll be joined by two young amateurs, Curtis Luck and Stewart Hagestad. The 57-year-old Couples zoomed up the leaderboard with a second-round 70 that left him at 1 under and within three shots of the lead. He’s begun the third round inside the top 10 each of the last five years only to fade badly on the weekend. “I’m not going to be thinking about winning the tournament until Sunday, or the back nine on Sunday,” Couples said. “But I’ve got a long way to go before that.” Mize, on the other hand, was tiptoeing along the cut line all day. The 58-year-old Augusta native lingered over a short putt for par on 18 and had to keep reminding himself: “Just hit it. Don’t make it more important than it was.” Plenty of others would love to have been in the same position. The two most promi- nent were British Open champ Henrik Stenson and U.S. Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed. Coupled with the with- drawal of U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson before the tournament, that left PGA champion Jimmy Walker as the only major winner still in the field. There were 53 players remaining after the cut, meaning former PGA cham- pion Jason Day will begin the third round with a non-com- peting partner selected by Masters officials. BULLDOGS: Pitching, defense shaky in Game 2 Continued from 1B run at second base with only one out. Noland came on in relief of Kody Moss, and threw just one pitch and induced a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat and the inning to set up Hermiston’s win. “We always talk to the guys that they’re one pitch away,” Hawkins said of the situation. “And playing good defense, it helps a guy a lot and there the guy rolls over on the pitch and we’re out of it just like that. That was huge.” Overall Game 1 was an offensive showcase for Hermiston as the Bulldogs put up season highs with 12 runs and 17 hits. Gritz finished with four hits in Game 1 with a double and an RBI and added two more hits in Game 2 to finish off a terrific day at the plate. “He’s usually a dead-pull hitter and today he hit it up the middle and good things happened,” Hermiston coach Lance Hawkins said. “He gets in those zones like today and shows you he’s figuring it out.” Behind Gritz, Wyatt Noland also tallied four hits with a triple, two RBI and three runs scored, while Kaden Caldwell had three hits and an RBI and Tolan had two hits and three runs. After scoring just three runs with 12 hits in a double- header sweep to La Grande on Monday, Hawkins said the focus at practice was squaring up pitches, and the results were noticeable. “We worked really hard in practice with that because we had too many easy fly balls, rolling over on pitches,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had over 10 hits in a game before and that was good to see. Now it looks like we have to focus on some defensive stuff and pitching.” Hermiston’s defense and pitching was mostly a big blemish all day, especially in Game 2 where Hermiston took a 12-2 loss to Heritage to finish with a split. The deflating moment came in the second inning with Heritage holding a 2-1 lead, where Hermiston pitcher Andrew James appeared to have a quick 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and a routine infield ground ball. However, an fielding error on the play allowed the batter to reach base, Staff photo by Kathy Aney Abby Rigby, of Pilot Rock, cruises to first place in the girls 100-yard dash Friday during the Carnival of Speed in Milton-Freewater. CARNIVAL OF SPEED: Pilot Rock’s Rigby shines in 100, 200 meter sprints Continued from 1B Staff photo by Eric Singer Hermiston’s Kaden Caldwell leads off first base in the first game of a baseball dou- bleheader against Heritage on Friday in Hermiston. extending the inning. Heri- tage jumped at the second chance, ripping two singles, one walk and a two-RBI double to put up four runs in the inning and take a 6-1 lead. From there on out, the body language of the Hermiston defense looked defeated as they finished the game with four errors total. “We have to learn how to play defense a little bit better behind our pitchers,” Gritz said. “We don’t have pitchers that are going to strike everyone out, we have ground ball pitchers and we need to capitalize on more outs on the infield, the outfield, even me and help the pitchers out.” The inning chased James after three innings and 65 pitches, though it was probably Hermiston’s best outing on the mound on a day where Bulldog pitchers struggled with command. Overall, Hermiston pitchers issued 19 free passes with walks or hit-by-pitch to go with 12 strikeouts and threw just 49 percent strikes on the day. And the booming Bulldog offense from earlier in the afternoon was kept under control by Heritage pitcher Allen Breckenheimer, who threw a seven-inning complete game, allowing just two runs and eight hits with five strikeouts and two walks. WIND, WIND GO AWAY Athletic events all over the region were affected by constant high winds and gusts that sat in the 20-30 mile-per-hour range all Herm- iston’s Andrew James delivers a pitch during the second game of a baseball double- header against Heritage on Friday in Herm- iston. Staff photo by Eric Singer afternoon, and these games were no different. The wind was blowing straight out to right-center field at Armand Larive ball park on Friday, making fly balls extra tricky for both defenses. Though, Hawkins said that playing in extreme elements whether it’s wind, rain or temperature is nothing his players were not used to. “It is what it is being in Eastern Oregon,” Hawkins said. “Some of those gusts were pretty impressive, but if you’re not ready to play in the wind, oh well ... plus in a few weeks we’ll be saying ‘Oh dang it’s really hot’ so we’ll deal with it. UP NEXT Herm- iston will finish up its non-league schedule on Monday at Kennewick (WA) at 4 p.m. ——— Game 1 R H E HERITAGE 100 331 3 — 11 8 1 HERMISTON 024 230 1 — 12 17 2 (HER) D. Guage, X. Ulrich. (HHS) B. Dufloth, C. Campbell (5), K. Moss (6), W. Noland (7) and S. Gritz. WP — W. Noland, LP — D. Guage. 2B — S. Gritz, D. Gossler (HHS). 3B — W. Noland (HHS). Game 2 R H E HERITAGE 024 031 2 — 12 10 1 HERMISTON 010 010 0 — 2 8 2 (HER) A. Breckenheimer and X. Ulrich. (HHS) A. James, C. Campbell (4), D. Gossler (6), W. Noland (7) and S. Gritz. WP — A. Breckenheimer, LP — A. James. 2B — G. Hoskins (HER). 3B — D. Gilmore (HER). ———— Contact Eric at esinger@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @ByEricSinger. boys’ team title by a half point over College Place (WA) with 67. Sprinter Jacob Speed and middle distance runner Hayden Scott led the way for the TigerScots. Speed said he wasn’t too thrilled with his times, but wasn’t blaming any of it on the high winds that swept through the region on Friday. He still walked away with two wins, though, in the 200 (23.79) and 400 (53.73). “The 400 I could feel (the wind) on the last stretch, but I think I just ran slower, honestly,” said Speed, who was also third in the 100 (12.28). Scott won the 800 in 2:03.12, and was second in the 1,500 (4:23.07). Also scoring high placings for the TigerScots was Braydon Rudolph in third in the 300 hurdles with a PR of 44.44, and triple jumper Khai Robertson in fourth with a PR of 39-1. “After the Pendleton meet we kind of realized how good we can do as a team,” Speed said. “It’s not that surprising, but it does feel good to come out against big schools in a big meet and get (the team win). And we don’t have a whole lot of numbers, so that means we’re doing pretty good.” Ten more local athletes came away with event wins and Pilot Rock junior Abby Rigby snared a pair of sprint golds for the third-place Rockets in the 100 (13.94) and 200 (27.88). She also ran the anchor leg for the first-place 4x100 relay team that finished in 54.06. Her teammates for that race were Rachel Willingham, Olivia Warner and Siobahn Holman. Meet host Mac-Hi earned a win on each side as Bianca Garcia out-tossed Weston-McEwen’s Maddi Muilenburg by nearly eight feet to win the girls’ javelin with a distance of 118-6, and Landon Warne had nearly as much room between himself and second to win the boys’ discus in 130-7. Unlike Speed, Warne was blaming the wind after he missed out on a PR of 150 feet when a gust pushed his discus out of bounds. “The wind was prob- ably like 30 mile an hour winds, and so if you get (the discus) high enough it just takes it off. It’s like a Frisbee,” Warne said. “It blew it out, really. … I feel like I’m at the right peak right now. Throwing it 150 but just out of the sector, close enough. In shot put I left it warm-up, but we had a lot of athletes PRing so besides the wind it was a really successful meet.” Other event winners for local schools were: Pendle- ton’s Soren Wolf de Gavia in the boys’ 100 (12.15), Riverside’s Faith Rosen in girls 100-meter hurdles (17.67) and Irrigon’s Justin Iveson in boys’ triple jump (41-6). ——— Team Scores BOYS 1, Weston-McEwen 2, College Place 3, Union 4, Irrigon 5, Elgin 6, Pendleton 7, Riverside 8, Umatilla 9, La Grande 10, Waitsburg 13, Mac-Hi 18, Pilot Rock 21, Echo 67 66.5 54 49 45 44 39 37 31 29 18 12 6 GIRLS 1, Pendleton 2, Enterprise 3, Pilot Rock 4, Union 5, Irrigon 6, Riverside 7, Cove T8, Weston-McEwen T8, Waitsburg T10, College Place T10, Umatilla T10, Joseph 14, Mac-Hi 16, Echo 71.33 67.33 65 56.83 37.5 36 35.5 32 32 27 27 27 21.5 12