SPORTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2018
1B
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PENDLETON
Bucks fi nish strong in league opener
Pendleton gets fi rst
Columbia River
Conference win
at Warberg Court
Prep Roundup
Pendleton
wins in
Hood
River
Heppner sweeps
Culver in away
doubleheader
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
East Oregonian
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Pendleton
Buckaroos started with a blank slate
on Thursday when they hosted the
Hood River Valley
Eagles to open
Girls
Columbia
River
Basketball
Conference play.
Head
coach
Kevin Porter noted
after
Tuesday’s
non-league loss to Hood River
Baker that these
next nine games
were the only ones
that mattered. And
that message was
Pendleton
reiterated leading
up to the league
opener.
We told the girls
all week, ‘We’re
0-0 now and we want to be 1-0 come
Thursday night.’”
And after Thursday night, the
defending CRC champions were 1-0
after defeating Hood River 51-36
behind a sound defense and a deep
bench.
Porter called on the great Coach
K — head coach of Duke’s men’s
basketball team — when asked about
the team’s defensive efforts, also
highlighting each girls involvement in
the victory.
“You read all the expert coaches
like Mike Krzyzewski, they’ll tell you
it doesn’t take talent to play defense,
it takes effort and desire,” Porter said.
“And our girls showed they were
willing to put out the effort and desire
tonight and it was all 12 of them.”
The Buckaroos (9-6 overall, 1-0
CRC) started the game with heavy
defensive pressure, going on an 11-4
run behind a full court press that
disrupted the Eagles, causing turn-
overs and rushed passes that favored
Pendleton.
Hood River’s shots were fi nally
falling late in the fi rst quarter as they
slowly chipped away at its defi cit.
The Eagles knotted the score at 16-16
thanks to their leading scorer, sopho-
more guard Ashlynn Dawson.
Dawson was responsible for all of
the points in their 7-5 run, and fi nished
with a team-best 12 points.
At the halftime break, the Bucks
had staked out a 26-20 lead.
HOOD
RIVER
— Behind a 23-point
performance from junior
Tyler Newsome, Pendleton
opened up Columbia River
Conference play with a
63-49 victory over Hood
River Valley.
The visiting Buckaroos
(9-6 overall, 1-0 CRC)
turned a six-point defi cit at
the half into a 21 points in
the third quarter to take back
the lead they would never
again relinquish.
“We responded with a
great second half,” head
coach Kyle Tedder said.
In the fi rst two quarters
the teams traded leads.
Pendleton was up 15-11 after
one, while Hood River came
back to enter halftime with
a 33-27 advantage. Good
defensive pressure from the
Eagles (5-11, 0-1) forced the
Bucks into turning over the
ball. But after some adjust-
ments they ran away with a
14-point victory.
Behind
Newsome,
senior Shaw Jerome netted
11 points. Fellow senior
Ryan Russell led the team
in rebounds, notching eight
to go along with his three
points. Newsome fi nished
with another team-best
in assists (4) and senior
Richard Scott grabbed four
steals.
For Hood River, junior
Carson Flores scored a team-
high 19 points, followed by
senior Jonah Tactay with 12.
Pendleton will stay on the
road for one fi nal non-league
game when it travels to La
Grande to face the Tigers at
7 p.m. Tuesday.
———
36
51
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton’s Kalan McGlothan fi ghts for a rebound against Hood River’s Hannah McNerney (20) and
Lauren Orr in the Bucks’ 51-36 win against the Eagles on Thursday in Pendleton.
See BUCKS/3B
PHS
15 12 21 15 — 63
HRV
11 22
4 12 — 49
PENDLETON — T. Newsome 23, S.
Jerome 11, K. Sams 9, W. Camp 6, R.
See ROUNDUP/3B
Pro Basketball
Lillard nets 26 points, leads Trail Blazers past Pacers
By NICK DASCHEL
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Damian
Lillard scored 26 points and
eight assists, Jusuf Nurkic
had 19 points and a season-
high 17 rebounds, and the
Portland Trail Blazers won
their fi fth consecutive home
game, beating the Indiana
Pacers 100-86 on Thursday
night.
C.J. McCollum added 16
points and Shabazz Napier
13 for Portland, which seems
NBA
Indiana
Portland
86
100
to have its homecourt mojo
back, winning fi ve straight
after dropping six consec-
utive home games in early
December. The Blazers also
beat Indiana for the ninth
consecutive time on their
home fl oor.
Victor
Oladipo
and
Darren Collison scored 23
points each for Indiana.
Portland took control late
in the third quarter, when
the Blazers held Indiana
scoreless for more than fi ve
minutes. It was part of Port-
land’s 21-2 run, during which
Napier scored eight points to
help erase a six-point defi cit
and give the Blazers an
89-76 lead midway through
the fourth quarter.
Indiana was without
forward Myles Turner,
the team’s second-leading
scorer this season. Turner
has missed fi ve consecutive
games with a right elbow
injury.
McCollum sprinted from
the fl oor to the locker room
early in the fourth quarter
with a brief bout of nausea,
but returned a few minutes
later.
Portland led 52-47 at
halftime, and the difference
was a pair of buzzer-beaters:
McCollum’s 3-pointer at
the end of the fi rst quarter,
and Lillard’s desperation
layup off a drive to fi nish the
second quarter.
The Blazers continued
their last-second mastery in
the third quarter, as Napier
made a backcourt steal then
buried a 3-pointer as time
expired to tie it at 74. It
wiped out a terrifi c quarter
by Collison, who hit three
3-pointers and scored 11
points to help Indiana lead by
as many as six.
TIP-INS
Trail Blazers: Led by 12
boards from Nurkic, Portland
outrebounded Indiana 29-18
in the fi rst half. ... Nurkic
had a double-double in the
fi rst half with 12 points and
12 rebounds. ... Portland
swept the season series from
Indiana for the third time in
four seasons. The Blazers
won 114-96 over the Pacers
on Oct. 20. ... Al-Farouq
Aminu is averaging 13 points
and 10 rebounds in his last
four games against Indiana.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: home
against Dallas on Saturday.
Sports shorts
LeBron, Curry are captains, to
draft NBA All-Star Game teams
NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James and
Stephen Curry will be the captains who pick
teams for the revamped NBA All-Star Game.
James and Curry received the most votes
from fans in their conferences
Thursday night and will draft from
a pool of the rest of the NBA’s
best for next month’s game in Los
Angeles.
The format was changed from
the traditional East vs. West
matchup for the fi rst time after
James
lackluster games the last two
seasons, when players made little
attempt to defend and the West nearly scored
200 in both of its victories.
The reserves, voted upon by the head coaches
in each conference, will be announced Tuesday,
and the rosters selected by James and Curry will
be unveiled next Thursday.
“It’s quite simple,
honestly. Beyond perfect
drive, perfect second
shot, perfect putt.”
— Jon Rahm
The Spaniard shot 62 on Thurs-
day to take the lead at Career-
Builder Challenge lead. His re-
marks are in regards to a soaring
5-iron that settled 5 feet away to
set up an eagle on the par-5 fi fth
hole at La Quinta Country Club.
The PGA Tour tournament will
continue through the weekend.
USA Gymnastics ends training
at Karolyi Ranch
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — USA Gymnastics
is ending its long relationship with the Karolyi
Ranch.
The organization announced
Thursday it has terminated its
agreement to have the ranch
outside of Huntsville, Texas,
serve as the National Training
Center. The decision came three
days after Olympic champion
Simone Biles expressed dismay at having to
attend camps there, where Biles says she was
sexually abused by a former national team
doctor.
The ranch is the home of former national
team coordinator Martha Karolyi and her
husband, Bella. USA Gymnastics initially
agreed to buy the training facility in August
2016 then backed out of the agreement
following an investigation into sexual abuse
by former national team doctor Larry Nassar.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1952 — The Professional
Golfers Association approves
the participation of black
golfers in tournaments.
2005 — LeBron James
becomes the youngest player
(20 years, 20 days) in NBA
history to record a triple-
double, with 27 points, 11
rebounds and 10 assists in
Cleveland’s 107-101 win
over Portland.
2014 — Russell Wilson
throws a 35-yard touchdown
pass on fourth down and
Seattle’s top-ranked defense
forces two late turnovers,
lifting the Seahawks into
their second Super Bowl
with a 23-17 victory over the
San Francisco 49ers.
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sports@eastoregonian.com