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SPORTS THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018 HERMISTON 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS NCAA Men’s Tournament Bulldogs Norvell fires up low-key Gonzaga fall to Braves Hermiston on wrong side of one-run game By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ East Oregonian If anyone would have checked the Hermiston baseball team’s schedule early Tuesday afternoon and late into the evening, a matchup versus the Mid-Columbia Baseball Conference Kami- akin (WA) Braves did not yet exist. Kamiakin (WA) In fact, head coach Kevin Moore found out about the game by way of a call from the athletic Hermiston director at 1 p.m. Tuesday and later confirmed its exis- tence during class when one of his players brought up the late addition to the schedule. But Moore couldn’t complain. “I would rather play then prac- tice,” he said Tuesday. In the Bulldogs’ season opener last Saturday, Hermiston rallied and See BULLDOGS/3B 5 4 AP Photo/Isaac Brekken, file In this March 6, file photo Gonzaga’s Zach Norvell Jr. raises his hands to the crowd during the first half of the West Coast Conference tournament championship NCAA basketball game against BYU in Las Vegas. Norvell is providing Gonzaga with fiery spark on the way to the Sweet 16. Norvell hit tiebreaking 3-pointer in NCAA Tournament opening round and scored 28 points in second round. Freshman guard coming into his own leading Bulldogs in NCAA tournament By JOHN MARSHALL Associated Press Staff photo by Alexis Mansanarez Hermiston’s Wyatt Noland throws a pitch in the third in- ning against the Kamiakan Braves on Tuesday. Noland put in four innings of work during the Bulldogs’ 5-4 loss. Zach Norvell Jr. earned the nickname “Snacks” for his affinity for candy and chocolate. Gonza- ga’s coaches picked up on it when Norvell’s father used the moniker during a visit, so Snacks followed the shooting guard to Spokane. Now Norvell is gobbling up opponents in the NCAA Tourna- ment. Gregarious and confident, Norvell has provided the fire the low-key Zags have needed and has them in position to make another Final Four run. “He’s got a persona that we really need in our program right now, quite frankly,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “We have “He’s got a persona that we really need in our program right now, quite frankly.” Sweet 16 #9 Florida St #4 Gonzaga Seminoles Bulldogs (22-11) (32-4) • Thursday, 7 p.m. (TV: TBS) • at STAPLES Center, Los Angeles an overabundance of introverts and that’s one thing he’s not. And so I call him our spiritual leader. He gets us going every practice, even the ones they don’t want to be at.” Norvell has the Zags in a posi- tion few outside Spokane thought they would be: Two wins from a return trip to the Final Four. Gonzaga reached the Final Four for the first time last season, — Mark Few, Gonzaga head coach on Zach Norvell Jr. losing to North Carolina in the title game. The Bulldogs lost key players from that team: Przemek Karnowski, Jordan Mathews, Zach Collins and Nigel Williams-Goss. Gonzaga was picked to finish second in the West Coast Confer- ence, but swept the regular-season and tournament titles to reach the NCAA Tournament for the 20th straight year. Once the Zags reached the field of 68, Norvell took over. The redshirt freshman aver- aged 12.3 points during the regular season, but has upped his game under college basketball’s brightest spotlight. Norvell overcome a rough shooting night to hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 20.8 seconds left in Gonzaga’s opening-round, 68-64 win over UNC-Greensboro. He followed that up by scoring 28 points, hitting six 3-pointers and grabbing 12 rebounds in a second- round win over Ohio State. The win over the Buckeyes sent Gonzaga to the Sweet 16 for the See NORVELL/3B NCAA Women’s Tournament Another upstart team awaits Ducks Central Michigan with upsets of No. 3 Ohio State and No. 5 LSU already By RYAN THORBURN The Register-Guard The Final Four is in Columbus, Ohio, this year. Oregon won’t have to get through Ohio State to get there. The second-seeded Ducks (32-4) will play No. 11 Central Michigan in the Spokane Regional semifinals at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Spokane Arena. The Chippewas (30-4), who had never won an NCAA Tournament game until upsetting No. 5 LSU in the first round, stunned Big Ten champion Ohio State 95-78 on Monday in Columbus. Five players scored in double figures for Central Michigan, which Sweet 16 #11 Central #2 Oregon Michigan Ducks (30-4) (32-4) • Saturday, 3 p.m. (ESPN) • at Spokane, Washington made 14 three-pointers and went 25-for-27 (92.6 percent) at the free- throw line to close out the victory on the Buckeyes’ home floor. “We withstood that first punch,” Central Michigan coach Sue Guevara said after her team seized control by outscoring Ohio State 25-6 in the second quarter. “We didn’t melt, we just kept fighting and kept coming back. When we got the momentum, in that second quarter, you could see they got tired. Some of their players had their hands on their knees, and we saw that and we said just keep running. “We don’t hope we’re going to win, we just keep attacking, and that’s what we did.” Meanwhile, Oregon was resting and waiting for an opponent on Monday after dismantling No. 10 Minnesota 101-73 on Sunday in front of a crowd of 7,576 at Matthew Knight Arena. Marlene Stollings, whose Gophers lost twice to Ohio State this season, said she would be “shocked” if the Ducks didn’t advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history. National player of the year candi- date Sabrina Ionescu finished with 29 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, three steals and three turnovers in 29 minutes to lead Oregon’s relentless shock and awe campaign. “She’s special,” Stollings said of the Pac-12 player of the year. “She’s See DUCKS/3B From Rocket to Warrior Contributed photo via Penny Gibbs In this March 16 photo, Pilot Rock senior Rhyanne Oates signs her National Letter of Intent to play col- legiate softball at Walla Walla Community College at Archies Restaurant in Pilot Rock Sports shorts Former Seahawks’ TE Willson signs deal with Detroit Lions ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — The Detroit Lions have signed tight end Luke Willson, adding a potential starter in place of Eric Ebron. Detroit made the move Wednesday, a week after releasing Ebron. Willson has 89 career catches for 1,129 yards with 11 touchdowns in 72 games, all with the Seahawks. He has 13 catches for 154 yards and one score in the playoffs, including two receptions when Seattle routed Denver in the Willson Super Bowl four years ago. Seattle drafted the former Rice standout in the fifth round in 2013. Wilson is from LaSalle, Ontario, which is on the banks of the Detroit River. The Lions opened free agency by making a major move last week, cutting ties with Ebron instead of paying him $8.25 million this season. “I mean, that’s great to be named with someone like Kareem. It’s one of the guys I looked up to growing up, him and Wilt Chamberlain.” — Dwight Howard The Charlotte Hornets center scored 32 points and grabbed 30 rebounds in Charlotte’s 111-105 win over Brooklyn on Wednesday. Howard, 32, be- came the first player 30 or older since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1978 to have a 30-30 game. LeBron, Cavs use second-half surge to beat Raptors 132-129 CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James scored 35 points and added 17 assists, his last setting up a late a 3-pointer by Kevin Love, and the undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers ended Toronto’s nine-game road winning streak with a 132-129 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors on Wednesday night. The Cavs were missing five rotational players and coach Tyronn Lue, who missed his second straight game because of health reasons. James didn’t have a turnover in 40 minutes and he made three free throws in the final 7.8 seconds. He missed one with 3.9 seconds left, giving Toronto a final shot, but DeMar DeRozan’s 3-pointer contested by James was wide left. Love finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds and George Hill had 22. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1997 — Tara Lipinski’s jumps, the cleanest and the surest in women’s figure skating, lift the 14-year-old into history as the youngest women’s world champion ever. 2013 — Florida Gulf Coast, a school so new it wasn’t eligible for the NCAA men’s tournament until the previous year, upsets second- seeded Georgetown 78-68 in the second round of the South Regional. The Eagles used a 21-2 second-half run to pull away from the Hoyas and hold on in the final minute to become the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com