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SPORTS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS MLB Rangers’ Beltre retires By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer AP Photo/Adam Hunger New York Knicks guard Trey Burke (23) drives to the basket past Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum (3) during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Tuesday in New York. Blazers edge Knicks By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer NBA EW YORK — CJ McCollum scored 31 points, Damian Lillard had 29 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the New York Knicks 118-114 on Tuesday night. Portland’s star guards pro- vided most of the offense in a game that was close most of the way, and Evan Turner helped the Trail Blaz- ers finally pull it out when he put back a missed shot with Portland clinging to a two- point lead and 9.5 seconds remaining. N Blazers Knicks 118 114 Jusuf Nurkic finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers, who have won two straight after dropping the first two games on their trip that now heads to its dif- ficult conclusion. Portland plays Milwaukee on Wednes- day and closes it at Golden State. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 32 points for the Knicks, who dropped their sixth straight. They were a bit better than the previous games of the skid, when they yielded 126.2 points per game, but not good enough to stop the early West- ern Conference leaders. Hardaway has scored 30 or more points in three straight games. The Knicks changed line- ups again, going back to vet- eran Enes Kanter over rookie Mitchell Robinson at center, and got off to a good start. The Knicks’ lead was 35-33 after Nik Stauskas threw in a 40-footer to beat the first-quarter buzzer. New York opened a 10-point lead early in the third, and that seemed to wake up the Blaz- ers, who outscored the Knicks 24-10 to end the period and take an 89-85 lead to the fourth. The Blazers then opened the fourth with a quick 7-2 spurt, and McCollum had eight straight Portland points as the Blazers took their first double-digit lead at 104-93 with 7:45 to play. Tip-ins Trail Blazers: Nurkic had his career-best fifth straight double-double. ... Portland, which came in shooting an NBA-best 85.4 percent on free throws, was just 12 of 17 (70.6 percent). Surging Washington State eyes Pac-12 North title By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press PULLMAN, Wash. — A year that began in tragedy for Washing- ton State is wrapping up with the Cougars on the brink of unparal- leled success. Players began spring workouts with heavy hearts after the Janu- ary suicide of quarterback Tyler Hilinski. The offseason departure of six assistant coaches and head coach Mike Leach’s flirtation with the Tennessee job then contributed to the outside perception that little should be expected of the Cougars this year. They were picked to fin- ish fifth in the Pac-12 North. “Everyone was pro- PAC-12 FOOTBALL Washington Washington St. Cougars Huskies (10-1, 7-1) (8-3, 6-2) Friday, 5:30 p.m., at Martin Stadium, Pullman TV: FOX jecting us to go 3-9,” freshman running back Max Borghi said. The picture today is so much different. Washington State (10- See WSU/2B AP Photo/David Zalubowski Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew is congratulated by fans as he leaves the field after an NCAA college football game against Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, Colo. Sports shorts For 3rd straight week, ‘Bama, Clemson, ND, Michigan top CFP (AP) — Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Michigan were at the top of the College Football Play- off rankings Tuesday night, mark- ing the first time in the five-year his- tory of the postseason system that the same teams held the first four spots for three straight weeks. Unlike last week, there was a lit- tle movement in the top 10. Central Florida moved up two spots to No. 9. The Knights became the first team from outside the Power Five confer- ence to be ranked in the selection committee’s top 10. Georgia remained No. 5, followed by Oklahoma at sixth. LSU remained seventh, Washington State held at eight and Ohio State stayed at 10th. No. 11 was Florida, which could help the Gators secure a New Year’s Six bowl bid. Penn State is 12th. ARLINGTON, Texas — Adrian Beltre had a some- times-imposing stare and plenty of quirky habits. He also had a genuine love for the game, and a lot of fun in a Hall of Fame-cali- ber career. After 21 big league seasons in which Beltre hit 477 home runs and became the first player from the Dominican Beltre Republic to have 3,000 hits, the slick-field- ing third baseman for the Texas Rangers retired Tuesday at age 39. “After careful consideration and many sleepless nights, I have made the decision to retire from what I’ve been doing my whole life, which is play- ing baseball, the game I love,” Beltre said in a statement. “I have thought about it a lot and although I appreciate all the opportunities and everything that baseball has given me, it’s time to call it a career.” Beltre, who will be eligi- ble for the Hall of Fame ballot in five years, was a .286 hitter with 1,707 RBIs in 2,933 career games. His 3,166 hits rank 16th on the career list, with his hom- ers total 30th and RBIs 24th. He played 2,759 games at third base — only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson had more. “As much fun as people see us having at the ballpark all of the time, and playing around, I haven’t met somebody that was more detailed about the game than him,” Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “He’s going to be missed for sure. It’s going to be different.” The four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner was 19 when he made his big league debut with the Dodgers in 1998. Beltre played with Los Angeles until 2004, the Seat- tle Mariners from 2005-09 and the Boston Red Sox in 2010. He joined the Rangers on a $96 mil- lion, six-year free-agent deal in 2011, and appeared in his only World Series in his first season with Texas. “The thing for me that stood out that I was unaware of ... was how much he fun he had,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “He’s obviously got an intense demeanor and it probably takes a little while for everybody to kind of get comfortable with him because he’s an intimidating guy, just because he’s so regimented and serious.” Beltre often checked his own swing to umpires and hated being touched on the head, which teammates often exploited. There were the shuf- fling feet and swiveling legs in the batter’s box on inside pitches or those in the dirt. There were those times when Beltre and Andrus would be only a few feet apart on the left side of the infield, both with their gloves in the air, one mimicking the other catching a popup. There was a pitching change at Seattle in 2013 when Beltre threw his glove at a flee- ing Andrus after being popped on the head with a glove by the shortstop. In his statement, Beltre thanked former Dodgers man- ager Tom Lasorda, then the team’s interim general manager, for “believing in this young kid from the Dominican Republic when others thought I was too See BELTRE/2B
