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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2018)
SPORTS TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS Prep Basketball Knights bring home a trophy Irigon claims sixth place in Class 3A East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Nixyaawii coach Jeremy Maddern consoles Kaitlynn Melton after the Golden Eagles’ 56-54 loss to Country Christian on Saturday at the state 1A girls championship game in Baker City. Dream season slips away Country Christian stuns Nixyaawii to claim state title and halt win streak By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian Class 1A Championship BAKER CITY — With three minutes left, the scoreboard inside Baker High School’s gymnasium read Nixyaawii 54, Country Chris- tian 46. After a back-and-forth game, the Nixyaawii Golden Eagles had momentum on their side and were creeping closer and closer to a second straight unbeaten season and state championship. However, with 2:50 left on the clock, everything changed. Nixyaawii senior do-it-all guard Milan Schimmel picked up her fifth foul while going for a steal and was forced to sit the remainder of the game. That play alone appeared to suck the momentum from the Golden Eagles and into the Cougars’ favor, and they pounced. Country Christian outscored the Golden Eagles 10-0 in the final two minutes and 34 seconds to stun the Golden Eagles 56-54 to win the Class 1A state championship on Saturday afternoon. It was the Cougars’ second championship in three years, previously winning in 2016. And it marked the first loss for Nixyaawii Country Christian 54 56 Nixy- aawii’s Mary Stewart (13) passes the ball to Ermia Butler in the Golden Eagles’ 56-54 loss to Country Christian on Satur- day at the state 1A girls cham- pionship game in Baker City. the 2017 champion Golden Eagles in two years, having won 56 consec- utive games coming into Saturday’s matchup. “I don’t know if anything went wrong, really, they (Country Christian) just played really well,” Nixyaawii coach Jeremy Maddern said afterward. “It was a high-level game and it was back-and-forth. But obviously Milan going out in the fourth hurt, because we had a lead there and we have those two guards (with Mary Stewart) that we’re able to kill a lot of clock and muscle into possessions ... So I don’t want to say we did bad things, they did good things. It was just a high-quality game that they (Country Christian) played better.” After Schimmel was sent to the Golden Eagle (28-1) bench, the Cougars defense was keying on Staff photo by E.J. Harris See NIXYAAWII/2B COOS BAY — In the consolation finals at the Class 3A state tournament, the No. 8 Irrigon Knights had to face No. 6 Cascade Christian. At first, Irrigon had the advantage, going up 11-7 after the opening quarter. But the Challengers put together back-to-back quarters where they held the Knights to only 20 points while scoring 34 of their own. In the second quarter, Cascade Christian chipped away at its deficit to enter the half just one point behind Irrigon. Then, in the third quarter the Challengers exploded and their efforts led to a 55-45 victory to claim fourth place. Irrigon brought home the sixth place trophy in Class 3A, its first trophy since moving to 3A last season and the first since the 2A state championship in 2015. Cascade Christian was led by Joel McLemore, who finished with a game-high 24 points. The Challengers (20-10) shot 40 percent from the field and banked more than half of their free throw attempts. For the Knights (22-6), Eric Carillo finished with 13 points and Johnny Phillips followed with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Keith Fleming also had a solid game with seven points and 10 rebounds. Adrian Roa also led the team with five assists. Irrigon finished 43 percent from the field and only hit 3-of-13 3-pointers. THURSTON 58, PEND- LETON 40 — The Pendleton Buckaroos season came to an end on the road Saturday with a 58-40 to Thurston in a Class 5A first round playoff game. The Colts move on to face Mountain View in the quar- terfinals. The Bucks finished 15-11 overall. Women’s College Basketball Oregon tops Stanford for first-ever Pac-12 title By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer SEATTLE — All day long, Oregon coach Kelly Graves noticed something a little different about Pac-12 player of the year Sabrina Ionescu. It wasn’t something that could be defined, just something the coach noticed about his star player. “She had a different look about her,” Graves said. “I didn’t know what that was going to translate to.” heading into N o w PAC-12 the upcoming Graves knows NCAA tourna- what that look ment. Ionescu meant. Oregon was the star, I o n e s c u Stanford scored a as the Ducks career-high 36 (30-4) avenged points and No. one of their 6 Oregon won its first Pac-12 two regular season losses in Conference tournament title conference play. beating No. 16 Stanford Ionescu was brilliant 77-57 on Sunday night. early, scoring 12 points in the Playing in their first first quarter, and took over conference tournament final, late in the third quarter as the Ducks looked every bit Oregon held a double-digit the part of a premier team lead most of the second half. 57 77 Ionescu scored 19 points in the second half. “It was the Ionescu show today,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. A year ago, Oregon was the surprise of the NCAA tournament making an unexpected run to the regional final before falling to UConn. Now they’ll go into the tourney as one of the favorites. Ionescu is a big reason See OREGON/2B AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Confetti rains down as Oregon players hold the cham- pionship trophy after beating Stanford in an NCAA col- lege basketball game in the finals of the Pac-12 Confer- ence women’s tournament on Sunday in Seattle. Sports shorts Mariners lose OF Ben Gamel for 4-6 weeks with strained oblique PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) — The injuries continue to mount for the Seattle Mariners, who will be without outfielder Ben Gamel for four to six weeks due to a strained right oblique muscle. The Mariners were hopeful that Gamel would miss only a few days but an MRI revealed a more exten- sive injury after it was reviewed by team physicians. Gamel first felt the injury after batting practice late last week. Gamel Gamel is added to a growing list of ailments for the Mariners. Seattle has already seen first baseman Ryon Healy (hand), outfielder Mitch Haniger (hand) and pitcher Felix Hernandez (bruised forearm) slowed by injuries during spring training. Outfielder Guillermo Heredia is also still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, leaving Seattle thin at the position. “I can’t really put it into words given the tough times over the last four years, and the struggle to get here, and knowing that I was able to compete at this level but not doing it. To finally break through and to have this validation means a lot to me.” — Phil Mickelson The 47-year-old pro golfer beat Justin Thomas in a playoff to win the Mexico Championship on Sunday, ending a drought of 102 tournaments without a victory, the longest of his career. Lillard scores 39 as Blazers come back to beat Lakers LOS ANGELES (AP) — Damian Lillard scored 19 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and the Portland Trail Blazers won their 15th consecutive game over the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-103 on Monday night. Lillard scored 15 in a row for the Trail Blazers down the stretch, giving them a 104-103 with 1:08 remaining by knowing down 1 of 2 free throws. CJ McCollum had 22 points, and Jusuf Nurkic added 16 points and 16 rebounds. Julius Randle had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who had their five-game winning streak ended. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 16 points, and Lonzo Ball had 10 points, two rebounds and two assists. Lillard was 5 of 7 from the floor and 4 of 5 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1982 — The San Antonio Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks combine for 337 points in the highest-scoring game in NBA history, to that point. The Spurs win 171-166 in three OT. 1996 — Detroit’s Chris Osgood becomes the third goalie in NHL history to score a goal, firing the puck into an empty net with 11 seconds remaining in the Red Wings’ 4-2 victory over Hartford. 2014 — The Los Angeles Clippers rout the Los Angeles Lakers 142-94. It’s the most lopsided victory for the Clippers’ franchise and the most one-sided loss in Lakers history. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com