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