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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, February 3, 2016 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions' full potential unleashed on Sweet Home After a fi ve-game losing streak, the girls' basketball team annihilated the Huskies, 52-15 Athlete of the Week Keara Murphy shoots a perfect game against Sweet Home Photo courtesy of Gary Ordway photography Melissa Thielman drives to the basket against Sutherlin last Tuesday. BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel If you found yourself around Cottage Grove High School this weekend, there was an extreme- ly pleasant scent in the air. The smell of sweet, sweet redemp- tion permeated through the high school’s main gymnasium on Friday night after the girls’ bas- ketball team swept up the chaos that was the Sweet Home Hus- kies, winning a 52-15 blowout. But the triumph did not come without some disappointment. Before the Sweet Home game, the Lions racked up their fi fth loss in a row against Suther- lin on Tuesday, Jan 26, 57-31. It was a game that head coach Kevin Yoss saw as their most challenging opponent all year. “Sutherlin was the best team we’ve played all season by far,” he said. “We actually played them a little better than any oth- er league opponent.” During the summer league, the girls were able to score only four points against Sutherlin, making this game a huge improvement. The Lions sank only a quar- ter of their attempted shots from the fi eld (10 of 40), making ac- curacy an issue throughout the game. The best shooting per- centages came from sophomore Keara Murphy, who shot four- for-eight on fi eld goals, and Hanna Arnold, shooting two- for-four and sinking one out of two free throws, giving her fi ve points on the night. Mur- phy missed all three of her free throws that night but was still a leading scorer for the Lions, ty- ing Taylor Harsh at eight points. Harsh was two-for-10 on the night, but both of her fi eld goals were form three-point range, and she was two-for-two on free throws. Senior Melissa Thiel- man fi nished the game with six points and two steals. Other contributors were Tara Child and Delia Nichols-Fergu- son with two points each. The defeat brought about their fi fth loss in a row and the teams eighth loss by 20 points or more this season. The losing streak was second to the longest streak this year by the Lions, start- ing off the season 0-6. Cottage Grove now has losing streaks of four, fi ve and six games this year. But the one thing the team has shown all season is tenac- ity. For the love of the game, the Lions refuse to tone down their enthusiasm and confi dence be- fore each game and coming off of a loss, and this week it fi nally paid off. In Cottage Grove's dominant performance against Sweet Home, the sophomore was four-for-four on fi eld goals and three-for-three on free throws, giving her 11 points total. Murphy also had eight rebounds, four defl ections and a steal on the night. She tied for the leading scorer in both games this past week. Boys rise in rank after two more wins After taking care of Sutherlin and Sweet Home this week, the Lions fi nd themselves ranked No. 4 in the state Please see BASKETBALL, Page 3B Girls' bowling takes fi rst place, boys' third at 'District 4 Championship' tournament COURTESY STORY For the Sentinel Courtesy photo The girls' show off their trophy at the District 4 Champi- onship. The girls' roster is as follows: Kim Smith, Olivia Perkins, Faith Stewart, Melissa Miller, Kayley Davis, Nikki Allen, Kevin Carver (Head Girls Coach), Vince Fiattarone (Assistant Coach), Byron Renfrow (Assistant Coach) Sunday, Jan. 24 the Oregon State District 4 Championship High School Bowling Tourna- ment was held at Firs Bowling in Eugene. A total of six girl high school teams and eight high school boy teams competed. The girl teams were from Cot- tage Grove HS, Springfi eld HS, Willamette HS, Marshfi eld HS, North Bend HS and Siuslaw HS. The boy teams were from Cot- tage Grove HS, Springfi eld HS, Willamette HS, Marshfi eld HS, North Bend HS Siuslaw HS, Thurston-1 HS and Thurston-2 HS. Each team played a total of 20 preliminary and 10 semifi nal baker format games. The top three fi nishing girl teams were, North Bend , Cottage Grove and Siuslaw then bowled two head- to-head games. Siuslaw fi nished taking third place. North Bend and Cottage Grove bowled each other for the District Champi- onship, with the Cottage Grove girls winning fi rst place. Cottage Grove boys won third place at District; qualify- ing them to play at the upcom- ing Oregon State High School Bowling championship. Out of a fi eld of 34 girls com- peting for this years District 4 All Star Honors, Cottage Grove fi nished with three girls in the top 10 listing. Faith Stewart won fi rst place and was awarded this year's MVP for the girls'. The top three fi nishing teams from the girls and boys teams will compete Feb. 27 and 28 for the Oregon State Championship be- ing held in Klamath Falls, OR. Lincoln Middle School wrestlers take second at regionals Photo by Gary Ordway Hunter Gipson jumps for three against Sutherlin. BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel If the OSAA playoffs were as exclusive as the two-year-old College Football Playoff sys- tem, the Lions would still be in control of their own destiny and would make the cut at this point in the season. Cottage Grove (14-3) defeated Sutherlin 54-40 on Tuesday, Jan. 26 and then dominated Sweet Home 78-48 on Friday. Please see RANKINGS, Page 2B The wrestlers now look to their district tournament BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel The Lincoln Middle School wrestling team is drawing at- tention to itself from around the state. Over the weekend, the wrestlers attended their re- gional tournament, taking home second place and only 12 points away from winning the entire tournament. Head Coach James Deatherage explained that there were some “dark horses” that emerged from his team, winning their matches in the fi nals. Nathan Boxberger, Christian Aldridge and Chris Nelson all won their fi nal matches. “We had a lot of kids make it to the fi nals,” Deatherage said. “Some of them we didn’t ex- pect, so that’s always good.” Please see MS Regionals, Page 3B Photo courtesy of Jamie Nelson The Lincoln Middle School wrestling team gathers around their second-place trophy at the regional tournament.