B
S PORTS
Section B
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove Lady Lions earn
playoff berth, top Madras
Athlete of the Week
Reilly Kelty, Ema Gardner, Keara Murphy
combine for 42 points
Kelty (left) Gardner (mid) and Murphy
(right) had 17, 13 and 12 points respectively
on Saturday evening. The "three" or "triple
towers" have been a powerful force for the
Lions and have since helped turn the season
around for Cottage Grove.
Ema Gardner attacks the hoop against Madras on Saturday. Gardner fi nished with 13 points on the night and fi ve assists.
By Sam Wright
sports@cgsentinel.com
For the past few weeks it has been the same incredible story for
the girls’ basketball team. The Lady Lions have had one of the best
second halves of a season in recent years, and on Saturday, Cottage
Grove secured a playoff spot with a thrilling win at home over Ma-
dras.
It wasn’t an easy game to win, and although it was a close game,
Cottage Grove was clearly the better team on Saturday.
The Lions started quickly in the fi rst quarter. Seniors Hudson
Weybright and Hannah Albrecht easily found a way to get the ball
to their tall posts and score easy baskets. The White Buffaloes do
not list the height of their players on their roster, but no one came
close to being able to challenge the height of players like Keara
Murphy, Reilly Kelty or Ema Gardner. But as one CGHS student
spectator pointed out, it’s not size that always matters, it’s stamina,
too.
After taking a 19-11 lead in the fi rst quarter, Cottage Grove then
saw the tenacity of its opponent.
Madras went on a 21-8 second-quarter run and took the lead over
the Lions before ending the second half. At 31-27, the White Buffa-
loes seemed to carry all the momentum.
But a four-point defi cit was nothing to truly worry about for Cot-
tage Grove. What the Lions had to do was subdue the scrappiness of
Madras. Although their size wasn’t on par with the Lions, the White
Buffaloes made up for it with scrappy and aggressive defense that,
to the benefi t of Cottage Grove, drew a lot of fouls.
Madras held onto its lead for the entirety of the third quarter,
stretching it to as much as seven at some points. But the Lions
stayed resilient and answered back, outscoring the White Buffaloes
13-10 in the third quarter, shrinking their defi cit to just one point as
they entered the fi nal period.
The game saw its third and fi nal lead change in the fourth quar-
ter. Cottage Grove took a 43-42 lead, and the team held its ground
against Madras’ attempts to fi ght back.
At a key moment with less than three minutes remaining, Wey-
bright was fouled while driving to the basket. The Lions held a 47-
46 lead, and much like in the second Elmira game, Weybright held
her cool and confi dently sank both free throws to give the Lions a
three-point lead.
“It was really nice to see Hudson Weybright step up to the free
throw line and hit those two free throws,” Head Coach Kevin Yoss
said.
Then, with less than a minute on the clock, Sierra Blomquist
stepped up to the free throw line. Although she only sank one of her
two shots, it put the Lions up by four points, making it nearly im-
possible for Madras to tie up the game or win it in the fi nal seconds.
While the free throws were the clutch shots of the night near the
end of the game, the offensive production goes to “the three tow-
ers” on the Lions roster.
Kelty, Gardner and Murphy scored 42 (84 percent) of the Lions
50 points on Saturday. Kelty fi nished the game with 17 points,
Gardner fi nished with 13 and Murphy with 12. It’s extremely hard
for a team to lose when three different players score over 10 points.
“[They] came through again with an amazing shooting perfor-
mance,” Yoss said.
The win earned Cottage Grove a spot in the fi rst round of the
playoffs and are set to face the toughest opponent they have faced
all season.
Since the Lions come into the playoffs as the 16th ranked team
in the state (the last spot for the playoffs), they are put against the
top-ranked team, Cascade. Cascade sits undefeated at 19-0 on the
season and have a 30-point win over Cottage Grove that happened
in early December.
But Cottage Grove is a different team than it was in December.
The size is now in sync with the coordination. The ball handlers and
guards have much better chemistry with the posts, and Cascade’s
roster holds no one taller than six-feet-one, Kelty stands at six-feet-
three.
The game is set for March 4, at 6 p.m. at Cascade.
Online reporting now
available for licensed
furtakers
Reports due April 15
ODFW launched an online reporting system earlier this year to
make it easier for Oregon’s licensed furtakers to report the results
of their season and confi rm their report has been received. The on-
line reporting system can be found at the Furbearer Hunting and
Trapping page.
Furtakers are licensed to hunt, trap, and pursue furbearers such as
beaver, bobcat, marten, mink, muskrat, river otter, raccoon, red and
gray fox and unprotected mammals such as coyotes, nutria, skunks,
and opossums under authorized seasons. Furtakers must report the
results of their season by April 15 each year, providing details on
the number of furbearers harvested, nights they spent trapping or
hunting, number of animals released, and other information. Fur-
takers who fail to report on time can’t get a license the following
year until they submit the late report and pay a $50 late fee.
Thanks to furtaker reports, ODFW gets information which helps
the department monitor and manage 17 wildlife species. “Without
these reports, little would be known about many of these species,”
Win gives boys playoff homecourt advantage
By Sam Wright
sports@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove racked up its second consecutive Sky-Em League title by beating Sisters in a 34-21
victory over the Outlaws last Tuesday. The game was scheduled as a tiebreaker at a neutral site in
Sweet Home, as the Outlaws and Lions both held the same 8-2 league record.
It was an overall defensive battle with both teams held to under 35 points, but the Lions’ late surge
in the fourth quarter gave them the edge over Sisters.
Neither team could separate itself from the other. The game was tied at 13 at halftime, the low-
est-scoring half of the season for the Lions. Each team scored eight in the fi rst quarter and then fi ve
Please see ODFW, Page 3B
points in the second. By the end of the third quarter, the game was still tied at 18.
Cottage Grove managed to kick it into gear in the fourth quarter. The Lions outscored the Outlaws
16-3 in the fi nal period to fi nish the regular season and take home a victory in what was essentially a
Sky-Em Championship game.
Cottage Grove shot for 40 percent from the fi eld, which isn’t a bad rate of shooting from the fi eld,
it was just that Cottage Grove couldn’t get off as many shots; they made 10 of 25 that night. Still, the
Lions held the Outlaws to only 36 percent from the fi eld. Cottage Grove also forced 13 turnovers and
outrebounded Sisters 20-16.
With such a defensive battle, it is impressive that Cottage Grove managed to hold its personal fouls
to under 10 on the game. The Lions only fouled seven times in both halves combined, and Sisters
nearly doubled that with 13.
Kory Parent led the team in scoring with 12 points, all from beyond
the three-point arc. The senior sank four of his seven three-point shots
and made no attempts from two-point range.
Sentman fi nished with 10 points, including fi ve free throws. Sent-
man also fi nished with seven rebounds, two assists, two blocks and
one steal. Overall Cottage Grove had 10 steals on the night.
Although he fi nished with no points, senior Hunter Gipson fi nished
with three steals and four assists. Tucker Porter had seven points on
the night and tied Gipson for steals.
The highest scorer for the Outlaws was Ty Horner with just seven
points.
This was the third game the Lions played against the Outlaws. Cot-
tage Grove beat Sisters in their fi rst encounter of the season, but the
Outlaws returned the favor earlier this month.
The win now puts the Lions as a top-seeded winner, and they are
now awarded a home game to kick off the fi rst round of the playoffs
against Banks.
Cottage Grove sits at the seventh place in the OSAA rankings, and
ninth-ranked Sisters travels to Gladstone.
The Lions host Banks at 7 p.m. on March 3.
PHOTO BY GARY ORDWAY