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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019
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A8
Ravens need double OT
to defeat Bucks
Pendleton girls drop to No. 3 in IMC standings after Tuesday’s loss
TT via AP/Christine Olsson
United States’ Mikaela Shiff rin
competes during an alpine ski
World Cup women’s parallel slalom
city event, in Hammarbybacken,
Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday.
Shiffrin
locks up
slalom title
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton’s Elli Nirschl (3) eyes the basket during Tuesday’s playoff game against Ridgeview.
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
Little did the Bucks know
that after 12 days without a
game, they’d fi ght their season’s
toughest battle.
The Pendleton girls kept
things close all the way through,
but ultimately fell to the visit-
ing Ridgeview Ravens 63-58 in
double overtime to drop to No.
3 in the Intermountain Confer-
ence standings.
“I’m disappointed every
time we lose, but we fought
through double overtime and
did a good job of holding our
ground,” said coach Kevin Por-
ter. “Games like this are a coin
fl ip — we called heads, and it
came up tails.”
The Ravens jumped out to a
9-2 lead off three treys to start,
but Bucks junior Sami Spriet
drained a 3 of her own to keep
her team in the game. Senior
Uliyana Guerrero sunk both of
her free throws with 0:07 left to
trail 14-13 at the end of the fi rst
quarter.
Senior Elli Nirschl gave
Pendleton the lead twice: once
from in the paint and again
from outside the arc. But the
Ravens quickly recovered with
four straight points from junior
Alaina Clark and senior Carissa
Love, and took a 26-23 lead at
the half.
Nirschl would take things
outside again in the third quar-
ter to knot the score at 30-30.
“I’m mostly a shooter — I
like to spot up whenever the
ball goes inside,” Nirschl said.
“Ridgeview was intense. Some
days, they’re on, and others,
they’re really off. We didn’t
know what team we were going
to get tonight. They gave us a
good fi ght.”
Buckaroo freshman Muriel
Hoisington tied things up 49-49
with two points at the line and
just 0:37 to go. Clark scored a
bucket to push the Ravens out
front again, but senior Katie
See Hoops, Page A9
STOCKHOLM
(AP)
—
Mikaela Shiffrin wrapped up the
season-long slalom World Cup
title on Tuesday, three days after
winning her record fourth straight
world title in the discipline. And
she matched yet another record in
the process.
Shiffrin won a parallel city
event, defeating Christina Geiger
of Germany in both runs to win
the fi nal by 0.27 seconds.
The victory gave the Ameri-
can two-time overall champion
an insurmountable 203-point lead
in the season standings with two
races remaining. Her closest chal-
lenger, Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova,
was beaten by Geiger in the
quarterfi nals.
“Each run I was pretty good but
not always the fastest,” Shiffrin
said. “But I was consistent and for
tonight, that was enough. It was
really fun, actually.”
It was Shiffrin’s 57th career win
and 14th of the season, matching
the record for most World Cup vic-
tories in a single campaign, set by
Swiss great Vreni Schneider in the
1990s.
Ramon Zenhaeusern of Swit-
zerland won the men’s event, beat-
ing Olympic champion Andre
Myhrer of Sweden in the fi nal.
Marcel Hirscher lost in the
quarterfi nals but the Austrian
gained enough World Cup points
to lock up the slalom season title.
Women’s college teams in Oregon rise to elite status
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
CORVALLIS — Two ranked
teams, two intense rivalry games
and two raucous sellouts: Wom-
en’s college basketball is enjoying
a renaissance in the Pacifi c North-
west where Oregon and Oregon
State are among the nation’s elite
teams again this season.
Oregon (24-2, 13-1 Pac-12) is
ranked No. 2 in this week’s AP
Top 25, for its highest ranking
ever. Oregon State (21-5, 11-3) is
ranked No. 12.
Both teams moved in the lat-
est rankings following Oregon’s
77-68 victory over the Beavers on
Friday in Eugene, with the Ducks
jumping a spot and Oregon State
falling from No. 9.
The teams are likely to shift
around again in next week’s poll
following the Beavers’ 67-62
revenge victory over Oregon in
Corvallis on Monday night.
Both games were sellouts, and
there was even a report of scalpers
AP Photo/Amanda Loman
Oregon State players, from left, Andrea Aquino (2), Janessa Thropay (13),
Katie McWilliams (10) and Destiny Slocum (24) celebrate their win over Or-
egon at the end of an NCAA college basketball game in Corvallis on Mon-
day. Oregon State won 67-62.
hawking general admission seats
at Gill Coliseum for $25, up from
the usual $12.
“Here’s the thing, it’s not just
the full houses, that’s an amazing
thing, but the quality of basketball
that’s being played on these two
teams is unbelievable. The level
that these two teams compete at,
execute at, it’s special, I mean it’s
just magnifi cent,” Oregon State
coach Scott Rueck said. “The fact
that we are both in communities
that will support the programs like
we have, makes it what it is.”
Oregon coach Kelly Graves
was so amped by the crowd for the
game at home that he grabbed the
public address microphone after-
ward to offer his thanks.
“This doesn’t happen all the
time. In women’s basketball,
unfortunately, there are pock-
ets that just don’t draw regardless
of how good the teams are. Just
because you have a good team
doesn’t mean you’re going to have
fans,” he said.
“And I think these fans have
really bought into our program and
our players, they love these guys.
And I just wanted to thank them
for that.”
Oregon State has been consid-
ered one of the top programs in
the country since Rueck’s fourth
season at his alma mater in 2013-
14, when the Beavers fi nished sec-
ond in the league standings and
returned to the NCAA Tourna-
ment for the fi rst time since 1996.
The Beavers’ best fi nish under
Rueck’s watch came in 2016 when
they went to the Final Four. Ore-
gon State has been to the tourna-
ment in each of the last fi ve sea-
sons, and last year reached the
Elite Eight.
The Ducks’ rise has been more
recent, since Graves came to
Eugene in 2014 from Gonzaga. In
2016, he landed Sabrina Ionescu,
one of the top prospects in that
year’s recruiting class. Ionescu
started as a freshman and last year
was the Pac-12’s Player of the Year.
A junior this season, Ionescu is
averaging 19.7 points, 8.03 assists
and 7.2 rebounds. She has become
known for triple-doubles, and
holds the NCAA record (among
men and women) with 16.
Oregon has made back-to-back
Elite Eight appearances in the past
two seasons.
Now that the two teams have
See Elite, Page A9
SPORTS SHORTS
Obama, Curry tell minority boys ‘you matter’
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Former President Barack
Obama and Golden State Warriors superstar Ste-
phen Curry told minority boys on Tuesday that they
matter and urged them to make the world a better
place.
Obama was in Oakland, California, to mark the
fi fth anniversary of an initiative he started after the
2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
The death of the African-American teen sparked pro-
tests over racial profi ling.
Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper as a call to
communities to close opportunity gaps for minority
boys, especially African American, Latino and Native
American boys.
He and Curry talked about what it means to be a
man and the struggles they had as teens.
The My Brother’s Keeper Alliance is part of the
Obama Foundation.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Former President Barack Obama, left, hugs Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry after speak-
ing at the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Summit on Tuesday.