SPORTS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018
1B
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS
PENDLETON
Bucks make dreams a reality
Jerome, Bower
sign on to play
college football
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Eric Singer
Pendleton seniors Shaw Jerome, left, and Nick Bower,
right, sign their Letter of Intent to play collegiate football
on Wednesday at Big John’s Pizza in Pendleton. Jerome
will attend Western Oregon and Bower will attend Pacific.
College Football
Dating back to their years
in elementary school, Shaw
Jerome and Nick Bower have
been best friends and have
shared a passion for sports —
specifically football.
Jerome even recalls that
he and Bower always played
some kind of sport together
at recess while at McKay
Creek Elementary School,
and that the duo had to be
split up onto different teams
after awhile to make things
more fair.
They also began playing
football together in the
Pendleton Youth Football
Association all the way
through high school, where
the two developed into one
of the best quarterback-wide
receiver tandems in Class
5A.
That friendship is also
what made Wednesday night
memorable for both boys. In
front of a large contingent
of family, friends and past
and present coaches, the
two friends sat side-by-side
at a small table in the party
room at Big John’s Pizza in
Pendleton and signed their
National Letters of Intent to
play college football begin-
ning in the fall. It’s something
each kid has dreamed about
since their youth football
days.
“We’ve been best friends
since we were seven years
old, before football even
started for us,” Bower said.
“Hopefully it continues for
the rest of our life and the
fact we’ll be only 45 minutes
away is a good thing.“
Added Jerome, “It’s been
nice to have him (Bower) by
my side all the way through
the years, and he’s been a big,
big part of my life for sure.”
See BUCKS/3B
Women’s College Basketball
USC signs
Pac-12s top
class on
signing day
Trojans sign pair from
Oregon while Ducks,
Beavers finish strong
Oregon’s
Sabrina
Iones-
cu, left,
leaves
the
court as
Stanford
players
cele-
brate
their
win
in an
NCAA
college
bas-
ketball
game
Sunday
Feb 4,
2018.
By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Sports Writer
Clay Helton has proven to be
an adept recruiter in his three full
seasons in Southern California,
annually bringing in loaded
recruiting classes.
His 2018 class may be the best of
the bunch.
Headlined by a quartet of five-
star recruits, Helton and the Trojans
signed 17 players on Wednesday in
a class that was ranked sixth nation-
ally by 247Sports.com. Helton’s
haul comes a day after he signed a
contract extension through 2023.
USC may have filled its quar-
terback need after Sam Darnold
declared for the NFL draft, signing
five-star quarterback JT Daniels of
nearby Irvine.
Daniels, who played at Mater
Dei High School, was the Gatorade
national player of the year as a
junior and committed to the Trojans
over the summer for the class of
2019. He is now in the process of
graduating early so he can reclassify
for 2018.
Daniels will have a familiar
target to throw to after Amon-Ra
St. Brown, a five-star receiver from
Mater Dei, signed with USC. His
brother Equanimeous recently left
Notre Dame early for the NFL draft
and his other brother, Osiris, will be
a redshirt freshman at Stanford next
season.
A third Mater Dei player, four-
star linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu
also signed with the Trojans.
The recruiting class also includes
five-star cornerback Olaijah Griffin,
son of rapper Warren G. Griffin’s
announcement had a Hollywood
flair to it, with his father and Snoop
Dogg in attendance.
Five-star linebacker Palaie
Gaoteote IV, of Bishop Gorman
High School in Las Vegas, signed
with USC during the early signing
period.
Other signing day tidbits from
around the Pac-12:
HUSKIES HAUL: USC may
have had the Pac-12’s highest-rated
class, but Washington was not
See SIGNING DAY/2B
Chris Pietsch/
The Regis-
ter-Guard
via AP
Ducks glum, but determined
Oregon now facing
steeper path to Pac-12
regular-season title
By RYAN THORBURN
The Register-Guard
EUGENE — It was a loss
worthy of an extended mourning
period.
Oregon’s path to a women’s
Pac-12 regular-season champion-
ship is a lot steeper after Sunday’s
78-65 defeat to Stanford at
Matthew Knight Arena.
“We’re going to put this game
behind us maybe in a few hours,”
sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu
Pac-12 Standings
Team
Oregon
UCLA
Stanford
Oregon St
Arizona St
Conf. Overall
10-2
21-4
10-2
19-4
10-2
16-8
8-4
17-6
8-4
17-7
said after exiting a somber locker
room. “A few days actually.”
The Ducks (21-4, 10-2
Pac-12), who slipped three spots
in this week’s Associated Press
poll to No. 9, play four of their
final six games on the road.
Oregon has back-to-back
games against two ranked teams
— No. 8 UCLA in the home
finale on Feb. 19 and at No. 25
Arizona State on Feb. 23.
The Cardinal (16-8, 10-2)
moved into a tie for first place
after Brittany McPhee scored 31
of her career-high 33 points in the
second half.
Stanford outscored Oregon
21-2 in points off turnovers,
27-18 on three-pointers, 36-28
in the paint and 11-0 in bench
points.
But the team’s record is what
eventually caught coach Kelly
Graves’ eye as he examined
the postgame box score at the
podium.
“It’s been a great year. I look
down, and we’re 21-4 and 10-2,”
Graves said. “If you would have
given me that back in November
or December I would have said,
yeah I’ll take it. We’re still in
good position.”
Oregon plays at last-place
Washington (7-16, 1-11) on
Friday and Washington State
(10-14, 3-9) on Sunday. Stanford,
which has lost seven games to
ranked teams this season, doesn’t
have any remaining games
against opponents in the poll.
The Ducks don’t make the
Bay Area trip this season in the
Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule.
“Unfortunately we don’t have
another chance to go against
them,” Graves said. “So if it does
end up in a tie, I know we still
See DUCKS/2B
Sports shorts
Ex-Hermiston star earns Big 12
Wrestler of the Week honor
Former Hermiston wrestling star Sam Colbray
and current Iowa State Cyclone earned the Big
12 Conference’s Co-Wrestler of the Week for his
standout performance over the weekend.
Colbray, a redshirt freshman
wrestling in the 197-pound class,
earned two dual victories for the
Cyclones. His second win was the
most impressive, as he upset South
Dakota State’s Nate Rotert —
ranked No. 11 in the country — with
a win by fall in 5:22. He also scored
Colbray
a 5-3 decision over North Dakota
State’s Cordell Eaton to help Iowa State secure a
21-20 team victory in the dual.
On the season, Colbray holds a 13-10 record
with two major decisions and one pin. Colbray
and Iowa State will be back in action this
weekend with duals against Fresno State and
Northern Iowa.
Salt Lake City 1st in US to
seek 2030 Winter Olympic bid
“Once I caught it, I just
trusted everything I’ve
done in my career.”
— LeBron James
The Cleveland Cavalier said
of his buzzer beater in single
overtime to seal the 140-138 win
over the Minnesota Timberwolves
on Wednesday night. The Cavs
had won just seven of their last
20 games up to that point.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Salt Lake City
has become the first U.S. city to announce it
will pursue a bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
An exploratory committee
that studied the issue and
state leaders announced the
decision Wednesday after
spending nearly four months
ensuring Utah could host the
Winter Games again without losing money. The
city hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic Committee has until
March to pick a city for 2026, though chief
executive Scott Blackmun said recently that
officials believe the 2030 Winter Olympics are
more realistic for a U.S. city.
In the U.S., Denver and Reno are consid-
ering bids. Internationally, cities weighing bids
include Sion, Switzerland; Calgary, Canada;
Stockholm, Sweden; and Sapporo, Japan.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain
of the Philadelphia Warriors
scores 59 points in a 136-120
victory over the New York
Knicks, beating his own single-
season scoring record of 3,033.
1987 — Seattle’s Tom
Chambers, a last-minute
replacement for the injured
Ralph Sampson, scores a
game-high 34 points to lead
the West to a 154-149 over-
time win over the East in the
NBA All-Star Game before
34,275 at the Kingdome.
1996 — Charles Barkley
becomes the 22nd NBA
player to reach 20,000 points,
scoring 30 in the Phoenix
Suns’ 107-102 victory over
New Jersey.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com