Cottage Grove sentinel., July 19, 2017, Image 19

S PORTS
C
Section C
Ducks fl y
high at NBA's
Summer
League
Wednesday, JULY 19, 2017
South Lane County & North Douglas County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 541-942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Special Olympic team wins big at State
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Former Oregon Duck bas-
ketball players have been
taking the NBA’s Las Vegas
Summer League by storm.
And it all starts with the de-
fending NBA Champions the
Golden State Warriors. The
Warriors, who have essential-
ly become a southern reunion
of Ducks, feature Oregon’s
Jordan Bell, Dylan Ennis
and Chris Boucher from this
year’s team and Elgin Cook
from last year’s Oregon
squad. While Boucher is still
out with an injury, the rest of
the Ducks are still active.
Bell, the 38th pick in the
draft, has been turning heads
throughout Summer League.
Last Tuesday he recorded the
elusive 5x5 stat line which
features at least fi ve points,
rebounds, assists, steals and
blocks over the course of one
game. This feat has only been
done in an NBA regular sea-
son game 16 times and was
most recently completed by
Bell’s new teammate Dray-
mond Green.
After this game, that Bell
also grabbed 11 rebounds in,
he took to Twitter to state that
he was "just trying to be like
Draymond."
While the Warriors lost the
game by three, Bell fi nished
with a plus-minus of +29.
Outside of this anomaly of
a game, Bell has averaged 5
points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.8
blocks in his fi rst four games.
As for the other Ducks on
the Warriors, Cook has been
playing 11 minutes a game
and averaging 6.8 points
while Ennis has gathered 13
minutes of playing time a
game and 4.8 points.
The other Duck that was
turning heads was the Mem-
phis Grizzlies 45th pick Dil-
lon Brooks. Brooks who was
Pac-12 Player of the Year last
season has been averaging
12 points a game and 3.7 re-
bounds.
His best game came against
the Utah Jazz when Brooks
shot 9/11 from the fi eld, in-
cluding 4/5 from three, and
fi nished with 24 points. Much
to the chagrin of Duck fans
who witnessed Brooks’ clutch
shots throughout his career at
UO, he was taken out of the
game when it was tied with
2.6 seconds left in regulation.
Outside of former Ducks,
the Portland Trail Blazers
have also been participating
in Las Vegas Summer League.
The star of the show has been
26th pick Caleb Swanigan out
of Purdue University. Swani-
gan is one of just four players
in Summer League averag-
ing a double-double as he is
at 15 points and 10.5 boards
a game. The other Blazers'
fi rst round pick Zach Col-
lins, who was selected 10th,
was averaging 6.3 points,
5.7 rebounds, two steals and
two blocks per game until he
injured his right quad in the
third game and was ruled out
for the remainder of Summer
League.
Bad news only got worse
for the Blazers when bench
player and fan favorite Pat
Connaughton went down
with a left hamstring injury.
PHOTO C/O BECKY VENICE
The Cottage Grove and Creswell Special Olympics track and fi eld team that competed at State last week.
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Last week 17 athletes from Cottage Grove competed in the Special Olympics
State Games in Corvallis.
The annual event, that works to promote values of sports and community with
youth and adults who are living with intellectual disabilities, saw over 2,000 par-
ticipants in track and fi eld, bocce, golf and softball. The Cottage Grove contingent
saw nine different participants in track and fi eld and four teams of two for the bocce
competition.
The weekend began with the opening ceremonies taking place at Reser Stadium.
Each group of athletes was paraded into the stadium with a sign that said where they
were from being held by a member of the Oregon State football team.
The track events began Saturday at Corvallis High School and in races from the
50 meter to the 200 meter and in the softball throw, Cottage Grove athletes were
bringing home the hardware. William Craft got bronze, Natasha Cosper and Kend-
all Thiel walked away with silver and Ian Miller, Rebecca Peanella and Jill Vavreka
all claimed gold. Additionally, the team also earned 11 ribbons.
“It went really well,” said head coach Bob Alexander. “For a small town team
that’s pretty good.”
On the bocce side, each of the four teams came home with a medal. The duo of
Monica Venice and Carmen Dowell and the pair of Gary Hilgendorf and Eric Nilson
all placed second. Then Ryan Britton and Jonathon Meade and the team of Rob
Brooks and Travis Thomas both took fi rst.
“I enjoy working with these guys, they’re fun to be around. And they try so hard
they give their heart,” said Alexander of both groups. “They just improve physically
Oregon State lineman Travis Mackay leads out the Cottage Grove and Creswell athletes
during the opening ceremonies.
and their ability to do their sport improves vastly.”
The athletes and members of their families spent the weekend in the dorms at
Oregon State. This was an opportunity to mingle with old and new friends and share
meals.
Athlete of the
Week
This week's athlete of the week is Ryan
Britton. Ryan and teammate Jonathan
Meade won gold at the Special Olympic
Games last week in the bocce event. In
addition to fi nishing fi rst, Ryan was also
awarded with the sportsmanship award at
the event.
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