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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, January 6, 2016 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions take third in tournament, enter top 10 Cottage Grove also beat Santiam Christian on the fi rst game of the New Year Athlete of the Week Hopkins' double double-double earns him double the awards Photo Courtesy of Gary Ordway Hunter Gipson drives toward the basket against Douglas in the Les Schwab tournament. BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel As 2015 was nearing its end, Cottage Grove High School hosted the Les Schwab Holi- day Tournament Dec. 28 and 29. The Lions fi rst faced the North Marion Huskies, where they lost a close battle, 55-52. Cottage Grove had hoped to get another shot at the Blanchet Catholic Cavaliers, but the Li- ons’ loss and the Cavs’ win in the fi rst round gave the Lions no chance of a rematch. Instead, the Lions were set to take on the Douglas Trojans for third place in the tournament, where they won 62-45 in a decisive victory. In fact, the score itself doesn’t do the Lions’ dominance jus- tice. By the end of the third quarter, Cottage Grove was up 53-27; Douglas was outscored in the fi rst quarter, 17-3. It was a short-lived rally by the Tro- jans that brought Douglas to 45 points, but by then, Head Coach Donn Pollard had already taken his foot off the gas pedal. The starters had a combined 100 minutes of playtime, but the bench had an impressive 54 minutes combined. It was trouble from the start for Douglas. The Trojans were 35 percent from the fi eld and 47 percent from the free-throw line. But the most signifi cant statistic from Douglas was that 35 out of Please see BOYS' BALL , Page 2B While it may be arguable about who had the best per- formance last week, it is undeniable that senior Chance Hopkins is this week's Athlete of the Week. The Lion racked up a double-double (on rebounds and points) during both of Cottage Grove's wins against Douglas and Santiam Christian. Important correction from last week Last week on the front page of the sports sec- tion, a picture of the CGHS JV girls soccer team was mistakenly printed in- stead of the varsity team. Sports Editor Sam Wright would like to take this op- portunity to apologize to all athletes, parents and community members for the mistake. In light of the mistake, the varsity team picture is published in this issue on page 3B. Girls' basketball in trouble, loses four in a row Kevin Yoss is struggling to fi nd answers during his fi rst year as head coach BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel It has been a tough season so far for the girls’ varsity bas- ketball team. After getting their fi rst win on Dec. 18, the Lions have lost four in a row and are now 1-8 on the season. After a loss at Blanchet, Cottage Grove hoped to get revenge on the Cavaliers at the Les Schwab Holiday Tournament but fell short in both of their games and then again against Santiam Christian. The team’s tournament start- ed off with a loss to Douglas, where the Lions fell 60-44 on Dec. 28. The team was 16 of 51 on fi eld goals (31 percent), but they managed 61 percent on free throws. The Trojans domi- nated the rebound game with 49 rebounds total to the Lions’ 35; Cottage Grove also had 26 turnovers. Senior Melissa Thielman was the top scorer with 12 points, and other contributions came from Hannah Arnold (eight points), Taylor Harsh (eight points), Delia Nichols-Ferguson (seven points), Dan Caro (fi ve points) and Hannah Albrecht (four points). Albrecht also led the team with seven rebounds. Unlike the boys’ team, the loss gave the girls the opportu- nity of a rematch against Blan- chet Catholic, but they fell short of any type of revenge, losing 64-43. In this game, the Lions made 28 percent of fi eld goals and 51 percent of free throws. This time, it was Ellie Brown and Harsh that were the leading scorers with nine points apiece. Sophomore Keara Murphy made her presence felt in the Please see GIRLS' BALL , Page 2B Village Green Resort's tailgate a success, Duck game not so much Locals were ready for a great game, but Oregon was stunned by TCU in triple OT after being up 31-0 BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel At the beginning of the foot- ball season, the Village Green Resort began hosting its own tailgate for Duck games. The lounge at the resort had always been a popular place for people to watch the game, but this was an entirely different function. Depending on the weather, the tailgate is hosted either out- side or in the map room. This past Saturday, as the weather has been far too chilly, it was obvious where to set up shop. The map room was fi tted with a large projector screen, a por- table bar and over a dozen tables for guests to enjoy food, drinks and Oregon football. It was an idea brought about by the Village Green’s general manager, Jake Aura. According to bartender and server Dartag- nan Mitchell, Aura introduced the idea shortly before the sea- son started, and it’s been a suc- cess every week. “It’s a lot of fun, we always get a good crowd,” Mitchell said. This week, the tailgate saw a variety of customers, from fi rst- timers to consistent and dedi- cated fans and customers. In between the extremities were Tim and Lorie McNaly. The McNalys have been to the Village Green a lot, as their son works there as a bartender. Tim wasn’t a Duck fan until he reached his 30s, where he spent Photo by Sam Wright From left to right: James and Sherri Raade, Sandy Woodward and Lori and Jay Tullar consistently attend the Village Green's tailgate party every Ducks game. a lot of time watching Duck football as he recovered from an accident in the hospital. The new-comers this week were James Harrelson and Rod- ney Chamberlain. Harrelson says that he has been to this tail- gate once before, but it was the fi rst time for Chamberlain. “The last time I was here the game was on the PAC 12 Network, which I don’t get on cable, so this was a good back- up,” Harrelson said. Many peo- ple don’t want to pay the absurd cable prices that it would cost to have the PAC 12 Network, which makes the tailgate a smart business decision. On the other side of the spec- trum was a table fi ve friends all gathered at the front of the ta- bles eagerly awaiting the game to start. The dedicated fans included Jay and Lori Tullar, Sandy Woodward and Sherri and James Raade. The group of friends says that they have been to this tailgate every week this year, and during the years be- fore, they would watch in the lounge room. Jay Tullar is a fre- quent season ticket holder and tries to make it to every game he can. If not, however, Tullar says that he thoroughly enjoys the at- mosphere at the Village Green. The Tullars have been fans for quite sometime, especially since their daughter attended UO just over a decade ago. Due to the Ducks' loss, the tailgate didn’t close on as high a note as anyone would have liked. It was history in the making, as the Ducks watched their 31-0 lead at halftime slowly diminish and turn into a 47-41 triple over- time loss at the Alamo Bowl on Saturday. It was considered one of the greatest comebacks in bowl history, and all of Duck nation is screaming “how and why.” With just under fi ve minutes left in the fi rst half, Oregon was already up 28-0, and it looked like the game was going to be a blowout. But quarterback Ver- non Adams Jr. kept the ball on an option run and did a rather amateur move by lowering his head. Please see DUCKS , Page 3B