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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018
1B
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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