SPORTS
Saturday, February 8, 2020
East Oregonian
B3
Ionescu helps No. 3 Oregon rout 12th-ranked Arizona 85-52
EUGENE (AP) — The
opponent was Arizona, so of
course Sabrina Ionescu was
up to the challenge.
The
Oregon
senior
scored 15 points to go with
11 rebounds and 10 assists
to reach double figures in
all three statistical catego-
ries for the 24th time in her
career as No. 3 Oregon over-
came a slow start and went
on to an 85-52 rout of No. 12
Arizona on Friday night.
It was the third time
Ionescu had recorded a tri-
ple-double against Arizona
and second this season.
“I don’t really know what
it is about them,” Ionescu
said. “I was recruited by
them and every time we play
them they’re giving us their
best shot.
“I obviously have to do
the same and our team has to
do the same. So we’re always
amped up to play them.”
Ruthy Hebard added 22
points for the Ducks (21-
2, 10-1 Pac-12) and Satou
Sabally finished with 17
points and 11 rebounds, plus
six assists in Oregon’s ninth
consecutive victory. Taylor
Chavez added 17 points in a
reserve role.
“They’re just a really
good team,” Arizona coach
Adia Barnes said. “When
Satou plays good I think
they’re great because she is
a very difficult matchup but
Sabrina is the catalyst to all
of that.”
Cate Reese led Arizona
(18-4, 7-4) with 17 points
and Ari McDonald added 13,
keeping alive her streak of
having scored in double fig-
ures in each of her 59 career
games, though it matched
her season low. The loss
ended Arizona’s five-game
winning streak and was the
worst defeat of the season,
by margin, for the Wildcats.
After struggling early,
Oregon turned its offense on
and outscored the Wildcats
Kelly Graves felt the differ-
ence was Oregon’s defense,
which he described as “night
and day better” than early in
the season.
“I think our last eight,
nine ballgames we’ve really
amped it up,” Graves added.
“Few teams score out of the
50s against us and we’re one
of the best offensive teams if
not the best offensive team
in the country. So if we can
hold teams in the 50s we’re
going to be in pretty good
shape.”
Big picture
Arizona: All four of the
losses for the Wildcats are
to teams currently in the
top 10, though the margin
of defeat to Oregon was the
widest.
Oregon: The nine con-
secutive wins by the Ducks
include six over teams
ranked in the top 20.
Home dominance
AP Photo/Chris Pietsch
Arizona Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, left, and Satou Sabally pressure Arizona’s Aari McDonald during the second quarter of an
NCAA college basketball game in Eugene, Ore., Friday, Feb. 7, 2020.
54-28 over the middle two
quarters. Oregon shot 53%
in the second half.
“I don’t know why we
didn’t compete,” Barnes
said. “I felt like we gave up
a lot of times.
“Oregon is really good
at home but the second and
third quarters were really
painful.”
The Ducks led 18-10 after
a sloppily played first quar-
ter. Each team commit-
ted five turnovers with the
Ducks 7 of 19 from the field
and the Wildcats 4 of 12.
“We were joking about it
like, ‘is there butter or some-
thing on the ball?’” Ionescu
said. “We haven’t played at
home in a while and we were
all super amped up.
“We know it’s a big week-
end, the crowd was fired up
and we were really excited to
play obviously in a big game.
We needed to settle down a
little bit. Once we did our
offense got flowing.”
Not much changed early
drive to the basket, starting
a 16-6 run that included the
final 10 points of the sec-
ond quarter by the Ducks
on the way to a 39-22 half-
time lead. Sabally finished
“WE WERE JOKING ABOUT IT LIKE,
‘IS THERE BUTTER OR SOMETHING
ON THE BALL?’”
— Sabrina Ionescu
in the second quarter. In a
span of seven possessions,
the Ducks missed three
shots and had four turnovers
and Arizona closed within
20-18 with eight consecutive
points.
Chavez, who scored nine
points in the first half, put life
into Oregon’s offense with a
the half with a 3-pointer
that gave her 11 points and
Ionescu added 10 points to
go with six rebounds and
four assists.
Hebard, with her size
advantage, scored Oregon’s
first eight points of the third
quarter and then fed Sabally
for a layup that pushed the
lead to 53-28, prompting
another Arizona timeout.
It didn’t do anything to
change the flow of the game,
and Oregon upped its lead
to 72-38 entering the fourth
quarter. All that was left
to be decided was whether
Ionescu could reach her 24th
triple double, with 15 points,
10 rebounds and eight assists
to that point.
Ionescu recorded her 10th
assist on a pass to Hebard
with 6:49 left, before she was
pulled from the game.
Oregon’s final point total
was the most scored against
Arizona this season. The
Wildcats came into the
game leading the Pac-12 in
scoring defense (52.1 points
allowed) while the Ducks
lead the nation in scoring
offense (86.2) but UO coach
In winning its 12 home
games, Oregon’s margin
of victory has been at least
32 points in all but one, a
12-point victory over Ore-
gon State.
Defending McDonald
In matching her season
low for points with 13, Ari-
zona’s Ari McDonald was
5 of 13 from the field and
missed her four 3-point
attempts. She also had seven
turnovers. “Ari found ways
(to score) but she had to work
really hard,” UA coach Adia
Barnes said.
Up next
Arizona: The Wildcats
play at Oregon State on Sun-
day, their fourth game in the
past five against a ranked
opponent.
Oregon: The Ducks host
a Sunday rematch with Ari-
zona State, the lone Pac-12
team to beat Oregon this
season.
Johnson drops ‘Chasing 8’ motto
before final NASCAR season
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
DAYTONA
BEACH,
Fla. — Jimmie Johnson
has been chasing NASCAR
history for so long that his
relentless pursuit of rewrit-
ing the record books has
become part of his legacy.
Johnson, tied with Rich-
ard Petty and Dale Earn-
hardt with seven Cup Series
titles, has been racing for
sole possession of the record
since 2017. He made a
hashtag for his social media
posts — #Chasing8 — and
his push to make history has
never wavered.
As he heads into his
19th and final full season
in stock car racing, Johnson
has dropped the motto. He’d
love to close his full-time
career with a record eighth
title, but the 44-year-old
Californian said he would
rather remove self-inflicted
pressure and enjoy his
final season in the No. 48
Chevrolet.
His new motto will be
‘One Final Time’ and it
begins Saturday with prac-
tice at Daytona Interna-
tional Speedway. The sea-
son-opening Daytona 500,
a race Johnson has won
twice, is Feb. 16.
“Through reflecting back
since I made the (November
retirement) announcement
it just kind of dawned on me
— the more I thought about
it, I never chased anything,”
Johnson said. “One final
time just felt like the correct
thing to say and now we’ve
struck the chasing eight
from everything and one
final time just fits well.”
It’s been a bumpy ride
for Johnson since winning
his seventh title. Hendrick
Motorsports stalwarts Jeff
Gordon and Dale Earnhardt
Jr. retired, leaving Johnson
as the veteran on a team of
20-somethings. Chevrolet
was not competitive with
the Camaro it rolled out
two years ago, a setback for
Johnson and an organiza-
tion in a rebuild.
The slide was gradual –
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
In this March 24, 2019, file photo, driver Jimmie Johnson
greets fans during driver introductions prior to the NASCAR
Cup Series auto race at the Martinsville Speedway in Mar-
tinsville, Va.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) shoots as Utah Jazz guard Joe Ingles (2)
defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Friday at Salt Lake City.
Johnson won three races in
2017 – but now the winnin-
gest driver of his era is in a
full slump. He has gone two
full seasons without a win,
missed the playoffs last year
for the first time and had a
pair of crew chief changes.
“It was definitely frus-
trating (not making the play-
offs), I was angry, embar-
rassed, all of those things,”
Johnson said. “One thing
that helped me with all of it
is it didn’t happen at once. I
knew in my heart of hearts,
it was months prior to that
where the real opportunity
lied and where we missed
it.”
Team owner Rick Hen-
drick hired Chad Knaus in
2001 when he launched the
48 team to be built around
Johnson, and the driver and
crew chief were together
for all seven championships
and 17 seasons. Then Hen-
drick made a change before
last year, moving Knaus to
William Byron’s team; his
replacement didn’t work out
and Johnson was given Cliff
Daniels midseason.
Daniels has helped John-
son relax and believes the
team is headed in the right
direction. In fact, pair-
ing Johnson with Daniels
was the catalyst in John-
son deciding to make 2020
his final year. He knew all
of last year he’d need to
make a decision on con-
tract talks with Hendrick
and it weighed on Johnson
until Daniels arrived and
changed the mindset of a
struggling driver.
“I was thinking about
it pretty hard through the
course of the year know-
ing I was going to have to
talk to Rick about a contract
extension. I started feel-
ing less likely to come back
when I started working with
Cliff,” Johnson said. “When
I sat Cliff down to talk to
him, I wasn’t sure how he
was going to react to that.
But the peace he brought
me and the leadership he
has for our race team and
where I know our team
is going really helped me
identify with 2020 as proba-
bly my best chance to win a
championship.”
Johnson said he is
encouraged by an updated
Camaro that Chevrolet will
use starting this weekend,
as well as a second year
adapting to NASCAR’s new
rules package.
NASCAR next year will
move to entirely new car,
and Johnson indicated he
was leery of going through
another overhaul. He wants
to enjoy life with his two
daughters, pick and choose
the kinds of races he com-
petes in going forward, and
he remains adamant he’d
like to give IndyCar a try on
a road or street course.
Jazz snap 5-game skid, rally
to beat Trail Blazers 117-114
By JOHN COON
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY —
Bojan Bogdanovic had 27
points and Donovan Mitch-
ell scored a go-ahead layup
with 19.5 seconds left as
the Utah Jazz overcame a
42-point performance by
Damian Lillard and beat the
Portland Trail Blazers 117-
114 on Friday night.
Mike Conley added 18
points for the Jazz. Mitch-
ell and Rudy Gobert (14
rebounds) chipped in 16
points apiece. Utah snapped
a five-game losing streak.
C.J. McCollum scored 27
points, Gary Trent added 16
and Mario Hezonja 11 for
Portland, which had only
seven healthy players avail-
able for the bulk of the final
three quarters.
Trailing by 13 points
early in the third, the Jazz
used a 20-6 run to erase
Portland’s lead. Ingles
punctuated the run with a
3-pointer, putting Utah up
86-85.
The Jazz extended their
lead to 106-99 on a 3-pointer
by Bogdanovic, but the
Blazers rallied. Lillard tied
it at 114-all on back-to-back
baskets in the final min-
ute. After Mitchell hit the
final go-ahead layup, Gob-
ert blocked Lillard’s layup
attempt with 11.2 seconds
left.
The Blazers shot 75% (15
of 20) in the first quarter.
Lillard served as a catalyst
for the blistering start.
Stopping the NBA all-
star proved to be a chore
for the Jazz from the open-
ing tip. Lillard started 7 of
7 from the floor and did not
miss his first shot until mid-
way through the second
quarter.
Lillard scored 16 points
in the first quarter alone. His
first four shots came from
the perimeter. Lillard’s last
two 3-pointers in that stretch
were part of a string of three
straight Portland baskets
that put the Blazers in front
21-12.
Utah used a 17-4 run to
surge ahead early in the sec-
ond quarter. Conley beat
the first quarter buzzer with
a 3-pointer to fuel the run
and Ingles capped it with
another outside basket to
give the Jazz a 44-41 lead.
Portland regained its
footing on offense and
regained the lead on a step-
back 3-pointer by Lillard
that broke a 52-52 tie. The
Blazers used a 14-2 run to
build a 72-58 halftime lead.
Lillard and Gary Trent, Jr.
scored back-to-back layups
off steals to fuel the spurt.
Tip-ins
Blazers: Hassan White-
side (left leg contusion) did
not play. … Trevor Ariza
was ejected with 10:05 left
in the second quarter after
earning two technical fouls
when he verbally accosted
a referee. … Anfernee
Simons did not return after
suffering a concussion with
20.7 seconds left in the first
quarter. Simons hit the back
of his head on the floor after
a missed shot. He finished
with five points in four min-
utes. … Caleb Swanigan
matched his career high
with 11 rebounds.
Jazz: Juwan Morgan had
a season high three rebounds
– all during the third quarter.
… Mitchell finished with
a game-high seven assists.
… Utah outscored Portland
66-40 in the paint and 20-8
in fastbreak points.
Up next
Blazers host the Miami
Heat on Sunday.
Jazz visit the Houston
Rockets on Sunday.