B
S PORTS
Section B
Warriors
and Elks
battle for 1A
supremacy
Wednesday, January 17, 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Lions outdone by Outlaws in league opener
By Zach Silva
On Friday night, the eyes
of 1A’s Skyline League will
be locked in on the girls’ bas-
ketball matchup between fi fth
ranked North Douglas (15-2)
and 13th ranked Elkton (13-
3). With both teams having
beat up on lesser opponents
throughout the season, they'll
come in to fi nd out how they
stack up in conference play.
The style of plays for each
team is strikingly similar.
Both teams are fully reli-
ant on a full-court defensive
pressure to spark their of-
fense and have been feeding
off opposition turnovers all
year. The teams both have a
shared loss against 2A’s un-
defeated Oakland team and
until the Elks fell to Days
Creek last Saturday, the
teams were both undefeated
in league-play.
Additionally, both teams
came into this year with rel-
ative unknowns about how
good they would be. A year
after earning the two seed at
state, the Warriors entered
the season with a new core of
players who have been thrust
into more prominent roles.
The team has been an-
chored by the play of junior
Abby Whipple and sopho-
mores Nicki Derrick and Ri-
lie-Jo Olds who all played in
last year’s state tournament.
This year the team has been
bolstered by guard Sofi a Al-
cantar who, with her speed
and quick hands, has given
teams trouble all season.
“We’re kind of babes in
the woods here,” said North
Douglas head coach Jeff Da-
vis. “We’ve had some experi-
ence in Baker City but we’re
not talking about signifi cant
minutes for this group.”
For the Elks, the team
made it to the second round
of the playoffs last year but
coming into this season, were
also without last year’s stars.
The group is led by senior
Hannah Maxwell who, of-
fensively, can get to the rim
at will. Allison Swearingen,
a senior guard, is Maxwell’s
running mate who has been
able to lock teams down on
the defensive end. A host of
sophomores that came in
ready to play meaninful min-
utes have propelled Elkton
to fi nd early season success.
Now the Elks are looking to
prove that they belong in the
top tier of 1A teams.
For Elkton, there is no
greater challenge than North
Douglas. Since the 2011-12
season, the Warriors, who
dropped down to 1A in the
2014-15 school year, are
13-2 against Elkton.
“They’re a good team,
they’re still a good team,”
said Elkton head coach Rob
Parker. “We’ve seen them
play, we’re just going to go
play them; nothing special.
We’ll do what we do and
they’ll do what they do. Jeff
and I have been coaching
against each other forever
so we know what each other
does. Just go and play, noth-
ing special.”
For Davis and the War-
riors, he sees this game as a
time that his team has to ex-
ecute and fi nd out where this
team stands.
“So we’re thankful, re-
gardless of outcome, that
we get to play them. We still
think that we’re climbing the
hill, still getting better. If it
means with youngsters that
we’ve got to stub our toe a
time or two, that’s part of it,”
said Davis.
PHOTO BYI IRENE NICHOLS-FERGUSON/CGHS
Cottage Grove's Jordan Hagewood works his way to the basket on Friday night.
Sisters scores a bucket with 4.9
seconds left in the game to secure a
road victory
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
For Cottage Grove’s fi rst year head coach Nick Fin-
ley, it was a “disappointing” way to start league play.
“That was a disappointing game. We talked about
that, that hasn’t happened much this season where
we’ve been, the coaches, have been disappointed. And
we were disappointed in that game,” said Finley after
Friday’s 50-48 home loss to Sisters.
Coming into the game, the Lions were confi dent as
they carried a six-game winning streak and were facing
a Sisters team that was missing last year’s fi rst team
all-league player Ty Horner who was sidelined with an
injury.
Pounding the ball inside, the Outlaws took an early
six-point lead that the Lions answered. An 11-3 run
during the end of the second quarter and start of the
third quarter gave the Lions a nine-point lead, their big-
gest advantage of the night.
“These kids are interesting. They show up to play
and then they decide to take a little break and tonight it
seemed like we were fl at the entire game,” said Finley.
“There were stretches there, minutes at a time, where
we scored eight points in like a minute and then we
wouldn’t score for four minutes and then we would
score eight points.”
In the fourth, the Outlaws took a 39-38 lead which
was their fi rst time being up since the fi rst quarter.
It didn’t last long as Jesse Ellingworth, who had been
diving and fi ghting for loose balls all night, made the
right play for the Lions as he splashed home a three, one
of fi ve on the night, to give Cottage Grove a temporary
lead.
Ellingworth fi nished with a team-high 19 points.
“The one thing that kills us about Jesse is his unwill-
ingness to shoot when he’s open. He knocked down fi ve
threes tonight and yet, you swing the ball to him and
he’s wide open and he doesn’t shoot,” said Finley.
“We need to get his confi dence going because he
could score 20-25 points for us a night. I mean, he’s a
good player. And defensively, he’s a solid player.”
As the Lions continued to battle it was errant plays
down the stretch, and throughout the game, that seemed
to spell their demise.
“These one-handed behind the back passes, those got
to go. You know, those 25-foot threes, we don’t need
those. We can get easier shots. I don’t know,” said Fin-
ley.
As the teams traded buckets down the stretch, it was
Trenton Grover hitting a three to tie the game. After a
Sisters bucket, and a methodical Lions possession, Jor-
dan Hagewood got a lay-up that tied the game at 46
with just under two minutes to play.
After Sisters hit a pair of free throws, it was the Li-
ons who found DeJean Alonzo who got fouled with 40
seconds left. Alonzo tied the game by sinking both free
throws.
In the fi nal possession, Sisters worked the ball around
as they used clock until Noah Richards cut through the
lane and scored with 4.9 seconds left. After a Cottage
Grove timeout, Erick Giffen sprinted the length of the
court and got a shot to go for the Lions but was no good.
“They’re kids and they’re in front of their home fans
and they want to put on a show. And I think that kind
of got to them tonight…. They wanted to make the
fancy pass or they wanted to get their fans to go ‘ooh’
and ‘aah’ instead of just go out and play basketball and
win,” said Finley.
PHOTO BYI IRENE NICHOLS-FERGUSON/CGHS
Cottage Grove's DeJean Alonzo pulls gets to the lane on
Friday night.
Cottage Grove smothers Sisters in win
Lions attack early and often to start
league play with a win
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
PHOTO BYI IRENE ZARAH WEMPLE/CGHS
After four losses in their past fi ve games, it was a
good time for a Cottage Grove win. And it came to
the Lions on Friday night at home as they dusted off
Sisters 51-16 in their fi rst league game of the season
“Feels good. It was badly needed,” said Cottage
Grove head coach Kevin Yoss.
Getting charges and steals, the Lions were locked
in from the start as they outscored the Outlaws 24-2
in the opening quarter.
“One of our goals… was to come out and have a
fast start which we did. Second quarter wasn’t very
good. First quarter was great,” said Yoss.
In the second quarter, Cottage Grove was no lon-
ger a team imposing their will but a team that was
equal to their opponent. In the quarter the Lions out-
scored the Outlaws 7-5.
“I told them, that’s the difference. Those are the
quarters that are hurting us against good teams. And
if we can eliminate that and can have longer stretch-
Cottage Grove's Reilly Kelty skies over the Sisters defense and scores.
Athlete of
the Week
This week's athlete of the week
is North Douglas sophomore
Sofi a Alcantar. On Friday against
Yoncalla, Alcantar fi nished with
13 points, 10 steals, seven assists
and fi ve rebounds. For more on the
Warriors turn to page B4.
es we’ll be fi ne. That’s what has been the difference
against the good teams is the stretches that we’re
playing poorly. And I just told them, we can’t do
that,” said Yoss.
In the second half the Lions were back to their
fi rst-quarter selves as Reilly Kelty continued to
dominate. Kelty fi nished the game with 15 points in
just 17 minutes of play.
What aided the Lions throughout the game was
their height. With Kelty at 6-2, and Matty Ladd,
Ema Gardner and Keara Murphy all above six-feet
tall, the Outlaws, who don’t have a player over 5-10,
struggled to get inside and to get rebounds. The Li-
ons outrebounded the Outlaws 43-30.
“We did a really good job tonight of going and
getting the rebound. We’ve struggled to do that at
times especially late in games when we really need-
ed it so I was pleased,” said Yoss.
With a 34-point advantage heading into the fourth
quarter, the Lions were able to lean on their bench
players in the fourth quarter to see the game out.
“I thought they did really well. Matty Ladd at the
end really showed what she can do so I think the fu-
ture looks bright for her. And a lot of those girls are
either freshman or sophomores and I thought they
did really good job coming off the bench,” said Yoss.
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
zsilva@cgsentinel.com