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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2017)
B S PORTS Section B WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions in deadlock for Sky-Em title, tiebreaker to come Cottage Grove and Sisters fi nish with the same league and overall records, the Outlaws and Lions play this week to decide a winner By Sam Wright sports@cgsentinel.com After losing to Sisters earli- er in February, Cottage Grove was no longer in control of its own destiny in terms of winning the Sky-Em League. The Lions now had to count on Sisters los- ing once more while they had to focus on winning the fi nal three games. Cottage Grove managed to win its last three games, and Sutherlin’s upset of Sisters gave the Lions and Outlaws the same league record. But Cottage Grove could not have fi nished its last three games any better, and the team beat its fi nal three opponents by 13 points or more. Sutherlin derailed Cottage Grove’s league run in a 43-37 upset over the Lions, but the Li- ons were determined not to re- peat their mistakes in round two during senior night at Cottage Grove last Tuesday. The Lions came out swing- ing and outscored the Bulldogs 21-6 in the fi rst quarter. Suther- lin managed to shrink its defi cit to nine at halftime, but Cottage Grove never relinquished con- trol of the game and beat the Bulldogs 50-37. Senior Blake Sentman led the game in scoring with 30 points, tying his second-highest scor- ing game this season behind the 37-point game against Monte- sano. Sentman was seven-of-12 from the fi eld, hitting three three-pointers in the process Blake Sentman pushes for a layup against Junction City on Friday night. and sank 13 of 15 free throws. Tucker Porter fi nished with 10 points and Kory Parent fol- lowed with fi ve. Cottage Grove fi nished shoot- ing 48 percent from the fi eld and 50 percent from beyond the three-point line. The Lions made 18 of 25 free throws (72 percent). Despite being out-rebounded by the Bulldogs, the game came down to who could shoot the ball more accurately. Sutherlin was only 13 of 33 (39 percent), Athletes of the Week OHSET rocks district meet By Shannon Witty For the Sentinel On Friday, Feb. 3, the Cot- tage Grove OHSET (Oregon High School Equestrian Team) team began their run toward a medium school district title. The 2017 team is composed of senior Sara Witty, junior Shel- by Glaspie, sophomores Bella Gray and Kira Fountain, and Freshmen Allison Ladd, Sam- my Wood, Madison Latham and Hannah Alvarez. Friday is Cow Day at the OHSET Meet and Cottage Grove athletes came ready to play. In steer daubing, Cottage Grove athletes took 4 of the top 5 spots with Glaspie in second, Ladd in third, Wood in fourth and Latham in fi fth. Then the Cottage Grove A team, comprised of Witty, Glaspie and Gray penned three steer in their fi nal go to take fi rst place in team penning. Fountain round- ed out the scoring for CG with a sixth-place fi nish in Working Rancher. Saturday saw great perfor- mances in working pairs with the teams of Witty and Ladd, and Fountain and Wood tying for second place. Latham add- ed a second place in Saddle Seat Equitation, Fountain took fourth in reining, and Wood tied for fi fth in reining. Then the night ended with a stellar victo- ry in Freestyle 6 Plus Drill for the Cottage Grove team of Wit- ty, Glaspie, Fountain, Woods, Ladd and Latham, outscoring the second place team by 150 points. Speed was the name of the game on Sunday with Gaming Day. Placing in the top six in gaming events were: Latham and Gray (sixth in birangle), Glaspie (third in barrels), and Witty (second in Keyhole, fourth in Figure-8). With all athletes scoring points in the meet, Cottage Grove fi nished in second place for medium school with 391 points. The next OHSET Meet is March 3-5 at the Oregon Horse Center in Eugene. only 12 percent from the three- point line and 58 percent on free throws. The next and fi nal game of the season was even better for the Lions. On the road and against Junction City (a team that gave the Lions a scare in their fi rst game), Cottage Grove blew away the Tigers in a 73-48 victory. The Lions started out hot in the fi rst quarter and then fi n- ished hot in the fourth quarter. Cottage Grove took a 21-10 lead after the fi rst period, and then each team was able to rack up 18 points on the other. Cottage Grove was ahead at halftime 39- 28. A 14-9 run by Junction City in the third quarter brought the game within six points at 48-42. But the Lions went off in the fourth quarter and put the game out of the Tigers’ reach with a 25-6 fi nal period. Parent and Sentman put up 50 points together with Parent scoring 28 points and Sentman scoring 22. The Lions were able to make it rain with three-pointers again, totaling nine on the night and shooting 50 percent from be- yond the arc. Parent individu- ally made 11 of 17 fi eld goals (three of six from three-point range). Sentman made eight of his 18 attempted fi eld goals but made fi ve of his 11 three-point shots. He also fi nished with four assists, four steals and one block. The Lions totaled a whopping 20 assists on the night, seven of which came from Hunter Gip- son, who also had fi ve steals and three blocks to go with his four points. The fi nal wins put Cottage Grove right up there with Sisters at 16-6 overall and 8-2 in league play. Sutherlin is currently sixth in the OSAA rankings while the Lions sit at 12th. Cottage Grove now takes on Sisters this week to determine who gets the fi rst and second seed playoff spots. The game will take place on neutral ground in Sweet Home. Lady Lions take second in Sky-Em, play-in match to be announced By Sam Wright sports@cgsentinel.com The Cottage Grove Lady Li- ons were a basket away from taking down Sutherlin for a sec- ond upset. Combining that with the Junction City win on Friday, Cottage Grove could have been the Sky-Em champs after start- ing the season 3-9. But Suther- lin was able to hold off an eager and aggressive Lion team and was able to take the Sky-Em crown. The Lions started off strong and took a 12-7 lead in the fi rst period. But a 14-3 second-quar- ter run by the Bulldogs put Cot- tage Grove down by six at half time. It seemed that the three-time defending state champions fi - nally had things going their way, but the Lions refused to let Sutherlin pull away on the scoreboard. Reilly Kelty helped lead her team on a comeback. After the two teams exchanged a few blows, the Lions were able to shrink their six-point defi cit to two points entering the fourth quarter. “I challenged the team to compete and give ourselves a chance to win it in the fourth quarter,” Head Coach Kevin Yoss explained. Only down by two, Cottage Grove was in striking distance of taking the lead. But Sutherlin responded to the Lions’ rally by putting up six points in the fourth quarter, barely giving them the lead. At 32-31 with a few seconds left, Cottage Grove had an op- portunity to inbound the ball and get one fi nal shot off for the lead and hopefully the win. Despite creating enough space to get the shot off, a last second attempt didn’t fall for the Lions PHOTO BY SAM WRIGHT Hannah Albrecht fi ghts for space against Junction City on Friday night. The Lions fi nished the season with a league record of 8-2, making their overall record 11-11 after starting the fi rst half of the season at 3-9. and time expired. “I was very proud of their ef- fort, even though the last shot didn’t fall,” Yoss said. Despite the loss, Cottage Grove held Sutherlin to just 25 percent (11 of 44) in shooting from the fi eld, while the Lions were at 39 percent. But even though the Bulldogs only sank 11 shots from the fi eld, fi ve of those shots were three-point shots, which were much needed for Sutherlin, as they were out- scored 22-6 inside the paint by the Lions. Cottage Grove also out-rebounded Sutherlin 39-24. Not only were the Lions able to hold Sutherlin to 25 percent from the fi eld, but they also managed to get fi ve steals and two blocks. Although the Bull- dogs only had one steal for the whole night, the Lions commit- ted 24 turnovers compared to Sutherlin’s 12. Kelty led the team in scor- ing with 16 points, followed by Ema Gardner with eight. Though the loss was heart- breaking, the Lions were still eager to fi ght for second place, and only Junction City stood in the way. The Tigers may have brought the game within two points on occasion, Cottage Grove main- tained its lead and controlled three of the four quarters. Junc- tion City managed a few stops in the second quarter to creep close to the Lions, but Kelty en- sured the lead the entire game, and Cottage Grove walked away with a 38-29 victory. The freshman had a whopping 23 points on the night, shooting 61 percent from the fi eld. The next highest scorer was Gardner with seven points. The second-place fi nish gives the Lions an opportunity for a play-in match against a third-place team of a different league. The game has yet to be announced but will most likely land on Friday, Feb. 24 or Sat- urday, Feb. 25. With the conclusion of the regular season, the All-League selections are also made. Sutherlind’s Taylor Strickland won Player of the Year. How- ever, Coach of the Year—which usually goes to the coach of the fi rst-place team—was award to Yoss. Kelty was the only one from Cottage Grove that got a spot on First Team All-League roster, but Gardner and Keara Mur- phy earned Second Team All- League spots. Cottage Grove had a remark- able fi nish to its regular season. The Lions turned a 3-9 record into an 11-11 record. Look for updates on Facebook and Twit- ter for the announcement of the next game.