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