B
S PORTS
Section B
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Final-Four-bound: Ducks upset Michigan,
(1) Kansas for fi rst Final Four bid since 1939
Oregon won the very fi rst men's NCAA tournament in 1939, the Ducks now look to the Final Four for the fi rst time since then
By Sam Wright
sports@cgsentinel.com
The Oregon Duck’s men’s
basketball program made it to
the fi nal four last week for the
fi rst time since the fi rst NCAA
tournament debuted in 1939.
Oregon has gotten to the Elite
Eight in previous years, but
it hasn’t been to the fi nal four
since the Ducks won the fi rst
national championship 78 years
ago.
But before we jump right into
the excitement of fi nale of one
of the most popular collegiate
tournaments in the world, let’s
analyze just how Oregon slowly
emerged into the spotlight.
We last discussed the sec-
ond-round game between Or-
egon and Rhode Island. Tyler
Dorsey hit a deep three-pointer
to give the Ducks the win and
advance to the Sweet 16.
This is where Oregon changed
from being the favored team, to
being the underdog. And so far,
the underdog label seems to suit
them better.
The Michigan Wolverines
were on a tournament roll after
downing second-seeded Louis-
ville as a seventh-seeded team in
the Midwest Region. Although
Oregon was a higher-seeded
team (3), ESPN and Las Vegas
had Michigan as the favorite in
the Sweet 16 matchup.
The predictions weren’t un-
founded. Oregon struggled to
put away Rhode Island, which
was an 11th seed. Oregon is
also without its big man, Chris
Boucher. Boucher led the na-
tion in defensive blocks until
he suffered a severe knee injury
against Cal during the Pac 12
tournament.
So how did the Ducks make
it all the way to the Final Four
as the underdog over the past
two games? The answer lies in
the trio of Tyler Dorsey, Dillon
Brooks and Jordan Bell.
Throughout the regular sea-
son, Brooks was the show-stop-
per who held the spotlight.
Brooks led the team in scoring
and hit several buzzer-beating
game winners from three-point
range against teams ranked top-
fi ve in the nation. Joining him
is now Dorsey. There’s a reason
why Dorsey is nicknamed Mr.
March. He now leads the team
in scoring during the tourna-
ment, and he’s the one draining
the threes. Bell has tied a school
record for most blocks in a tour-
nament game, and his rebounds
were the saving grace against
Michigan.
The Sweet 16 game saw close
to 10 different lead changes, but
the Ducks held the lead for most
of the game. However, with just
over two minutes to play, Michi-
gan had a three-point lead at 68-
65. Within a minute, Bell scored
a put-back layup, and Dorsey
drove for a go-ahead layup with
just over one minute left in the
game. Barely holding on to a
69-68 lead, the Ducks fed the
ball to Brooks, who drove to the
basket and missed. But Bell was
in perfect position for a devas-
tating offensive rebound that al-
lowed Oregon to drain more of
the clock.
Michigan’s high-scorer Der-
rick Walton Jr. attempted a
last-second three-pointer for
the win but came up short, and
the Ducks were sent to the Elite
Eight for a second consecutive
year.
Bell fi nished the game with
13 rebounds and 16 points.
Now to where the Ducks were
truly an underdog. On Satur-
day, Oregon faced off against
one-seeded Kansas, a team that
scored over 90 points in its past
two games. Kansas was predict-
ed to beat Oregon solidly by
over 10 points, but writers and
analysts spent the days leading
up to the game talking about
how the game will be clos-
er than expected, and Oregon
could stay under 10 points.
Well that wasn’t the case at
all. Because not only did the
Ducks maintain a lead for the
vast majority of the game, they
won by more than 10 points.
They beat the Jayhawks by 14
points to be exact, in a 74-60
game.
Oregon took an early lead
after Kansas initially went up
3-2. While the Jayhawks were
keeping things close throughout
the fi rst half, Oregon ended the
half with an 11-point lead after
Brooks and Dorsey hit back-
to-back three-pointers before
going into the locker room at
halftime.
After that, it was pretty much
all Ducks. Bell was a menace
for the Kansas offense, as the
center racked up eight blocks
on the game, a school record for
NCAA tournament games.
Oregon extended its lead to 18
at one point, but Kansas slowly
chipped away and brought the
game to 66-60, the closest score
of the second half.
But Dorsey responded with a
three-point shot to put the lead
back up to nine, and the Ducks
fi nished an 8-0 run to end the
game.
Dorsey had a game-high 27
points, shooting nine-for-13
from the fi eld and six-for-10
from three-point range.
Along with Bell’s eight
blocks, he also had 13 rebounds
and 11 points. Brooks fi nished
with 17 points, fi ve rebounds
and four assists. Dylan Ennis
added 12 points.
Now the Ducks look to the
Final Four this weekend. Ore-
gon will face off against North
Carolina on Saturday in what
will be the Tar Heels’ 20th Fi-
nal Four appearance. Last year,
North Carolina lost to Villanova
in the national championship
game.
ESPN reported that less than
one percent of the 18 million
brackets fi lled out this year had
Oregon going to the Final Four.
The upset has rocked a lot of
brackets as Kansas was at one
point perceived as the best team
in the tournament.
Athlete of
the Week
James smokes competition at Icebreaker
Cottage Grove hosts three
schools at CG Icebreaker last week,
individual results promising
CG boys and girls in top fi ve of most events
Freshman Sabrina James took home her fi rst high
school track gold medal in the 1500-meter race. James
fi nished in a time of 5:24.12 seconds, 25 seconds faster
than the second-place fi nisher. Her teammate Abril Leal
fi nished in fi fth place.
Girls show strong balance between
track and fi eld events
By Sam Wright
sports@cgsentinel.com
Jacob Woods runs as the anchor for the 4x100-meter relay team. Woods crossed the fi nish line and took fi rst place at the Cottage Grove Icebreaker meet
on Wednesday.
By Sam Wright
sports@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove’s track and
fi eld team kicked the season
off last week with the Cottage
Grove Icebreaker on Wednes-
day. The Lions hosted North
Valley, Thurston and Pleasant
Hill.
Neither the girls’ nor the boys’
team took fi rst place at the meet,
but there were a lot of impres-
sive fi nishe among both squads.
Junior Jacob Woods took sec-
ond place in the 100-meter fi nals
with a time of 11:53, a personal
record. Cooper Ladd took fi fth
place with his own personal re-
cord of 11.76 seconds.
Woods and Ladd had top-fi ve
fi nishes in the 200-meter fi nals.
Woods fi nished with a PR of
23.53 in his second-place sprint,
and Ladd fi nished in fourth
place with a time of 24.60. The
two sprinters were also joined
by freshman Markus Julien in
the top 10. Julien took ninth
place with a time of 25.94.
In the 400-meter race, two
young Lion runners, freshmen
Logan Nelson and Frenando
Soto-Cruz took fi fth and sixth
place, with times of 60.45 and
61.90, respectively.
Sophomore
Erick
Giff-
en showed his stamina in the
800-meter race. Giffen fi nished
with a time of 2:18.77 to secure
fourth place in the fi nals. Team-
mate Daniel Dunn crept into the
top 10 in ninth place with a time
of 2:28.90.
Cottage Grove saw wonderful
results from its long-distance
runners. In the 1500-meter race,
Jesse Ellingworth set his own
personal record with a time of
4:41.77 and a second-place fi n-
ish. Freshman Michell Krokus
took sixth place with a time of
4:55.25.
Freshman James Talley of
Cottage Grove gave the Lion
boys their fi rst fi rst-place fi nish
in the 3000-meter race. Talley
fi nished in just 10:20.96, and
Michell Krokus took fourth
place with a time of 4:55.25.
Junior Hayden Glenn gave
Cottage Grove their second
fi rst-place with the 110-meter
hurdles. Only four competed,
but Glenn fi nished with a time
of 17.27. The high hurdles will
be a race that the Lions will
struggle with this year. Last
year, star senior Michael Tharpe
consistently took fi rst place in
regular season meets and fi nally
broke 15 seconds at the district
meet in Cottage Grove. How-
ever, Tharpe started his hurdles
career with much slower times.
As the season goes on, expect to
see Glenn’s times drop sharply.
The boys’ relay team secured
another fi rst-place fi nish in
the 4x100-meter relay. Glenn,
Ladd, Woods and Chad Bottorff
fi nished with a strong time of
44.75 seconds.
On the fi eld side of things,
Hunter Hall took fi rst place in
the shot put by throwing a dis-
tance of 42 feet, 1.5 inches. Hall
also took second in javelin (138
feet, 11 inches).
Giffen, who took fourth place
in the 800-meter race, took sec-
ond place in the high jump at a
height of fi ve feet, eight inches.
Cottage Grove also took fi rst
and second place in the pole
vault event with Takoda Brooks
(10 feet), and Max Gause (eight
feet, six inches), respectively.
In the long jump, Tucker Por-
ter took second place, jumping
20 feet, eight inches, and Glenn
took second place (18 feet, nine
inches). Porter also placed third
in the triple jump.
The boys’ ended the meet in
second place, not bad consid-
ering the competition coming
from North Valley (fi rst place)
and Thurston (third place).
The girls’ team took third
place overall, but Cottage
Grove, North Valley and Thur-
ston stayed fairly close in terms
of points. Thurston fi nished in
fi rst with 74, North Valley had
67 and Cottage Grove had 68.
But to avoid early injury,
the Lions didn’t have their star
athletes compete in all of their
usual events, which is proba-
bly what caused a slight dip in
points.
Regardless, Hannah Albrecht
and Zarah Wemple took third
and fourth place, respectively,
in the 100-meter dash. Albrecht
sprinted in 13.49 seconds and
Wemple fi nished in 13.72. Al-
brecht then took fourth in the
200-meter (27.78), and Ara-
mie Nydam took third in the
400-meter race (1:16.77).
Hudson Weybright, who
earned a spot to compete at the
state tournament last year, com-
peted in only one event during
the Icebreaker, the 800-meter
race. Weybright took third place
with a time of 2:38.19.
The fi rst fi rst-place fi nish
on the girls’ squad came from
freshman Sabrina James. James
ran the 1500-meter race in
5:24.12, 25 seconds faster than
the next runner. Senior Abril
Leal followed up with a strong
fi fth-place fi nish in 5:46.10.
Cottage Grove wasn’t able to
take fi rst place in the 100-meter
hurdles, but the girls secured the
next three spots. Faryn Dahlen
took third place (17.56 seconds),
Tyra Gordon took third (18.37)
and Celeste Pelham took fourth
(18.58). A similar pattern hap-
pened in the 300-meter hurdles.
Sydney Boxberger (59.20)
took fourth place, Pelham
(59.30) took fi fth place, Dahlen
(59.82) took sixth, Gordon
(62.79) took seventh and Chel-
sea Armstrong (63.20) took
eighth place.
Finishing off the track re-
sults, Cottage Grove took fourth
place in the 4x100-meter relay.
No 4x400-meter relay was run
during this meet.
In the fi eld events, Boxberg-
er took fi rst place in the jav-
elin throw, with a meet-high
distance of 98 feet, 10 inches.
Melissa Powers and Kaitlyn
Brooks took third and fourth
respectively, with throws of 94
feet, six inches, and 91 feet,
four inches.
Paige Welch took the top
Cottage Grove spot in the shot
put with a fi fth place throw of
26 feet, 6.5 inches. Powers took
sixth in the discus (70 feet, four
inches) and was shortly fol-
lowed by Miranda McCasline
Please see TRACK & FIELD, Page 2B
Fool's Rush 5k run to be held
April 1
Run CG, an organization dedicated to staging quality, unique run-
ning experiences in Cottage Grove will be hosting its second-annu-
al Fool's Rush 5k Run/walk on April 1 at 6 p.m. The run will take
you up Mt. David in Cottage Grove and is the exciting part of the
run according to those who participated in it last year. The race will
start and end at Sixth and Washington Streets in downtown Cottage
Grove.