East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, January 12, 2018, Page 1B, Image 9

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    SPORTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2018
1B
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Men’s College Basketball
Prep Football
Ducks stun red-hot Sun Devils
OSAA
changes
could
affect
local
schools
Oregon hands
Arizona State
fi rst home loss
By JOHN MARSHALL
Associated Press
TEMPE, Ariz. — Payton
Pritchard scored 18 points and
hit two free throws with 13.8
seconds left, helping Oregon hold
off No. 11 Arizona State 76-72 on
Thursday night.
O r e g o n
(12-5,
2-2
Pac-12
Pac-12) used a
late spurt to go
up eight points
Oregon
and hit four free
throws in the
fi nal 32 seconds
to
earn
its
biggest win of
the season.
The Ducks #11 Arizona St.
dominated the
paint, outscoring
Arizona State
38-16 inside and scoring 15
second-chance points on 15 offen-
sive rebounds. Elijah Brown had
18 points and hit two free throws
with 32 seconds left for Oregon.
Arizona State (13-3, 1-3) went
through a few rough patches offen-
sively in its fi rst home game since
Dec. 22. One came with about
5 minutes left in the second half
when the Ducks pushed their lead
to 68-60.
The senior trio of Tra Holder,
Shannon Evans II and Kodi Justice
tried to bring the Sun Devils back
in front of a rowdy Wells Fargo
Arena crowd that included former
Sun Devils star James Harden and
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in the
front row.
Evans hit a corner 3 with 17.5
seconds left to pull Arizona State
within 74-72, but Arizona State got
no closer to lose for the fi rst time in
nine home games this season.
Justice had 21 points, Evans 19
and Holder fi nished with 14.
Oregon was coming off a 76-65
loss to rival Oregon State after
allowing the Beavers to shoot 53
percent and go on a 12-1 second-
half run.
Arizona State, a team that can
go on runs in a fl ash, had a similar
stretch against the Ducks in the
fi rst half. Forcing tough shots and
turnovers, the Sun Devils got their
OSAA football ad-hoc
committee trying to
level the playing fi eld
76
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
72
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Oregon guard Victor Bailey Jr. (10) shoots over Arizona State forward Romello White (23) during the
fi rst half of Thursday’s basketball game in Tempe, Ariz.
up-tempo game rolling after a
shaky start, going on an 11-0 run to
go up 31-18.
The Ducks fought their way
back behind Brown, closing the
fi rst half on a 14-2 run and pulling
even at 41-all on his buzzer-beating
3-pointer.
Pritchard kept hitting long-
range shots and the Ducks got a
lift from forward Roman Sorkin in
the second half. Arizona State kept
pace behind Holder, Justice and
Evans.
Oregon used a short spurt to
build the lead to 68-60 with 4
minutes left
Arizona State tried to fi ght
back out of a timeout, with Justice
hitting a 3-pointer and Evans
See DUCKS/3B
The football landscape within
the OSAA will likely look much
more different than expected
come this fall.
The OSAA’s ad-hoc football
committee has spent the past
two-plus months taking a closer
look at the
issues that face
the sport in
the state, such
as declining
participation
and
player
safety. Over the course of its
fi ve meetings, the committee
has developed a set of recom-
mendations that will likely be
presented to the Executive Board
in February that would be imple-
mented for the 2018 season.
The most notable recom-
mendation is giving schools that
meet specifi c criteria the option
to play down a classifi cation to
help level the playing fi eld. The
specifi c criterion outlined by the
committee is for schools with a
four-year Colley win percentage
of 22 percent or lower or has
played 12 and fewer in-classi-
fi cation games during the last
four years, or any school with a
two-year Colley win percentage
of 22 percent or lower.
According to the committee’s
early research, 48 schools across
the state meet that criteria,
which include local schools
McLoughlin, Riverside and Pilot
See OSAA CHANGES/3B
Men’s College Basketball
Beavers continue strong play, but can’t hold off No. 17 Wildcats
By BOB BAUM
Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. — Tough defense
ignited enough offense for No. 17
Arizona to get the Wildcats a bounce-
back victory over Oregon State on
Thursday night.
Allonzo Trier scored 15 of his
21 points in the second half and the
Wildcats, coming off a road loss
at Colorado, pulled away from a
sluggish, close game in the fi nal 7 1/2
minutes to beat the Beavers 62-53.
“I am happy with our defensive
effort,” Arizona coach Sean Miller
said. “That’s as hard as we’ve played.
It’s not really my opinion. You look
out and see things happen. Guys are
really helping each other, pressing the
ball.”
Deandre Ayton had 14 points and
Pac-12
Oregon State
#17 Arizona
53
62
10 rebounds and Rawle Alkins scored
11 points, nine in the second half, for
the Wildcats (13-4, 3-1 Pac-12).
“The best offense is good
defense,” Alkins said. “Defense-to-
offense, we had a lot of great plays.”
Tres Tinkle scored 18 points and
Stephen Thompson Jr. had 14 for the
Beavers (10-6, 2-2), who have won
just once in Tucson in the last 35
years (2010).
“It was a physical game. You saw
that down the stretch,” Beavers coach
Wayne Tinkle said, “and we weren’t
able to make plays.”
Oregon State led the entire fi rst
half and was up 22-21 at the break,
the lowest-scoring half for Arizona
this season, and the lowest-scoring
for a Beavers opponent.
“We felt like we should have had
a little more of a lead,” Tinkle said,
“then they did what they did.”
The Wildcats outscored the visi-
tors 24-14 over the fi nal 7:33.
“Our defensive effort and the
consistent effort broke the game
open,” Miller said.
It took quite a while for Arizona
to fi gure out how to get anything
against Oregon State’s match-up
zone defense.
“You can practice, prepare,” Miller
said, “but until you get in the game
you don’t realize the size they have,
See BEAVERS/3B
AP Photo/Rick Scuteri
Oregon State guard Stephen Thompson Jr. (1) drives against
Arizona guard Allonzo Trier in the fi rst half during Thursday’s
basketball game in Tucson, Ariz.
Sports shorts
Nowell’s 20 points help Washington
pull away from Cal for 66-56 win
SEATTLE (AP) — Jaylen Nowell scored
20 points, Noah Dickerson added 12 points,
and Washington continued its promising early
start to conference play with a 66-56 win over
California on Thursday night.
The Huskies (13-4, 3-1 Pac-12)
overcame a sloppy and unattractive
fi rst-half fi lled with fouls and turn-
overs to pull away from the Golden
Bears over the fi nal 15 minutes.
Nowell carried Washington in the
fi rst half with 11 points and he got
Nowell
help from his supporting cast in the
fi nal 20 minutes.
Nahziah Carter was a big contributor with 10
points off the bench. David Crisp also fi nished
with 10 points, all in the second half for the
Huskies.
Justice Sueing led California (7-10, 1-3) with
a career-high 27 points.
“I don’t know where it
kind of went wrong or
what happened. We’ve
got to try to pick it back
up and fi nd it.”
— LeBron James
The Cleveland Cavalier said after
the team suffered its most-lopsid-
ed loss of the season, a 133-99
defeat at the hands of the Toronto
Raptors on Thursday night.
Army challenging nickname
of NHL’s Las Vegas franchise
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The U.S.
Army has fi led a challenge opposing the
application of the NHL’s
newest franchise to register the
trademark “Las Vegas Golden
Knights.”
In a claim fi led Wednesday
with the U.S. Trademark Trial
and Appeal Board in suburban
Washington, the Army claims it will be
damaged by registration of the marque and
says it has acquired exclusive rights that
predate any rights claimed by the NHL team.
The Army says it has used the Golden
Knights nickname since the late 1960s for
its parachute team, public relations and
recruiting, and claims it owns “common law
rights” for the color schemes that combine
black and gold and yellow and white.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
2012 — Dwight Howard
breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s
nearly 50-year-old NBA record
for most free throw attempts in
a game, making 21 of 39 in
the Orlando Magic’s 117-109
victory over the Golden State
Warriors. Chamberlain shot 34
for the Philadelphia Warriors
against St. Louis on Feb. 22,
1962.
2017 — Fresh off his
victory on Maui, Justin
Thomas becomes the seventh
player to join the “59 Club”
on the PGA Tour when he
makes a 15-foot eagle putt
on his last hole at the Sony
Open for an 11-under 59.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com