B
S PORTS
Section B
Warriors
work for a
win
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove powers past Elmira
North Douglas
outlasts Elkton
By Zach Silva
It was home sweet home
for North Douglas on Friday
night.
After falling on the road
to Elkton two weeks ago,
the Warriors beat the Elks
at home 56-41 to stay in the
race for fi rst place in league
play.
The two teams are locked
in a three-team race for fi rst
place in the Skyline Division
with Days Creek. The War-
riors will play the Wolves
in a pivotal league game on
Friday.
“You know all the kids
did a good job tonight,
we’ve grown so much in two
weeks. Mentally, there were
things that happened tonight
that I think two weeks ago
would just consume us,” said
North Douglas head coach
Jeff Davis.
Before the game began,
the Elks received words that
starting senior guard Allison
Swearingen tore her ACL
and will be out for the rest
of the season. Swearingen
joined sophomore Aspyn Lu-
zier (fractured growth plate)
as the second Elkton starter
to be sidelined with an inju-
ry.
“It was an adjustment. A
couple girls had to play po-
sitions they don’t normal-
ly play so I told them we’ll
work on that,” said Elkton
head coach Rob Parker. “You
know, they were upset. They
let some easy baskets go and
stuff, but I told them we’ll
work on them in practice and
take care of it. We’ll be fi ne.”
In the fi rst half, the game
was close throughout. The
Warriors never trailed and
led by as many as four points.
For every North Douglas
fast break point, often led by
Nicki Derrick who fi nished
with 17 points, it was Elkton
fi nding an answer often in
the form of a Hannah Max-
well jump shot. Maxwell fi n-
ished with 14 for the Elks.
In the second half, the
Warriors, a team predicated
on their transition offense,
slowed down as they worked
their offense. The fi rst offen-
sive possession took 1:20 of
game time.
“We still think we can do
both, we haven’t quite fi g-
ured that out, but we have
enough foot speed that we
can run down the fl oor and
run an organized break and
get some easy ones,” said
Davis.
The game changed when
with 5:16 left to play in the
third quarter Maxwell picked
up her fourth foul for the
Elks and was pulled from the
game.
Down two when Maxwell
came out, the Elks stayed
close and a Samantha Mc-
Call bucket got the lead to
three when it looked like the
Warriors were about to run
away with it. But without
their best player, the North
Douglas attack was too much
and a quick 8-0 run at the end
of the quarter extended the
lead to 11.
When Maxwell returned
in the fourth, she scored the
fi rst time she touched the ball
and the Elks were able to get
the lead down to fi ve. As
the Elks were looking to get
back into the game, Maxwell
was called for her fi fth foul
as she was working to get in
position under the basket.
“We played a lot of the
game with four sophomores
and a freshman and I thought
WARRIORS continued on B3
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Cottage Grove's DeJean Alonzo fi nds a lane on offense against Elmira.
Lions get mid-week home win, fall
to Sisters on Friday
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
While Elmira’s basketball coach Nick Garman
felt right at home in Cottage Grove’s gym, the Lions
showed up to spoil the evening.
Garman – a lifelong Cottage Grove resident, one-
time CGHS head coach and current teacher at CGHS
– and his current Falcons (4-16, 0-6) team faced off
against some of his current students on Tuesday night
where the Lions (13-6, 4-2) won 76-60 for their fourth
win in a row.
“We get together pretty much after every league com-
petition and we talk,” said Garman’s CGHS colleague
and Cottage Grove’s head coach Nick Finley. “Whether
they’re playing Sisters and we’re playing Sutherlin or
we kind of help each other out, talk and tell each other
what we see. And yeah, we talk a lot about basketball.”
The conversation shifted as the Lions scored over 70
points for the fi fth time this season.
“Well you know, it would have been a lot nicer if they
were a lot slower,” said Garman about the Lions team
that has now won 10 of their last 11 games.
In the opening minutes of the game, it was an electri-
fying Lions attack that included three-pointers on three
straight possessions to give the home side an early 15-2
advantage. Cottage Grove’s Jesse Ellingworth fi nished
the quarter with 11 of his game-high 23 points.
In the second quarter, it was Cottage Grove’s Jasper
Nichols-Ferguson who made his Lions debut. Nich-
ols-Ferguson, a junior, joined the team three weeks ago
and has not played since sixth grade. The 6-foot-6 big
man began his career with an emphatic block.
“He was huge for us down low. Their big kid is big
and strong and he pushed us around and Jasper is big,
strong and tall and so he affected the kid’s shots and
was able to push him back and get him off the spot
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Cottage Grove's Markus Julien tries to dribble past a defender
on Tuesday night.
where he wanted to be. Great fi rst game,” said Finley.
After the game got as close as six points, the Lions
rolled out to another run to get their lead back to as
many as 14 before the Falcons closed the gap. Elmira’s
Logan Bender and Kellen Smith orchestrated a 17-6 run
in the third quarter got the Cottage Grove lead down to
two points.
Bender fi nished with 22 for the Falcons and Smith
added in 18.
“They went on a scoring run and we didn’t play good
defense. They were hitting shots and we weren’t play-
ing defense and we made it easy for them,” said Finley.
After a missed Elmira lay-up on a chance to tie the
game, the Lions took off.
It was a team effort as buckets from Jordan Hage-
wood, DeJean Alonzo and Ellingworth paired with El-
mira turnovers carried the Lions to get back to an eight
point lead. The Falcons were able to hang around at the
start of the fourth before the Lions cleaned up turnovers
and turned Elmira’s defensive pressure into three-on-
one opportunities that resulted in easy buckets.
“I knew eventually we could snap out of it and come
back to reality and be able to take advantage of the fast
break, push the ball,” said Finley.
The hometown Garman saw it in the same light.
“We turned the ball over too many times, didn’t re-
bound well. But Cottage Grove is a better team,” he
said.
On Friday night, the Lions fell to Sisters on the road
47-45. It was the second time the team lost to Sisters by
two points this season. Hagewood fi nished with 13 and
Alonzo had 12 for the Lions.
Reaching New Heights
Cottage Grove's height presents the
team with opportunities
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
There are a lot of skills a basketball player can get
better at: shooting, rebounding, sprinting. The list
goes on. But, as the old adage goes, you can’t teach
height. You either have it, or you don’t.
And the Cottage Grove girls have it.
The Lions feature four girls on their team that are
listed as 6 feet 1 or taller. This includes freshman
Matty Ladd at 6 foot 1, sophomore Ema Gardner
and senior Keara Murphy at 6 foot 2 and sophomore
Reilly Kelty at 6 foot 3.
No matter who they play in the 4A classifi cation,
there is no one that can match the Lions for size. The
Lions are quite literally head and shoulders above
the competition. Teams are lucky to have one player
who stands at least six feet tall and just six teams in
this classifi cation have two girls listed at being at
least six feet tall. No team has three and the Lions
are the only squad with four. The only other team in
the state with four girls over 6 foot 1 is 6A’s Benson.
“(The other day) Sweet Home’s coach said,
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Ema Gardner looks over a defender as she searches for an open
teammate.
Athlete of
the Week
'That’s really hard to guard.' I’m glad I’m on this
side of it and not having to deal with the other side
because I’m not sure how we would handle that,”
said Cottage Grove head coach Kevin Yoss.
Height and basketball go hand-in-hand as is clear
when looking at the best teams in the state. In the 6A
classifi cation, Southridge is ranked number one and
have three girls on their team over six feet including
Cameron Brink who is 6 foot 4. At the 5A level,
second-ranked Marist, who will be joining the Li-
ons in the Sky-Em league next season, features two
players listed at 6 foot 1 and one player 6 foot 2.
To get to that next level of success, last year Yoss
threw out the old playbook so he could make way
for an offense that capitalizes on the team’s height.
“We instituted a post offense that takes in consid-
eration three posts that we’re able to utilize,” said
Yoss. “We started that early last year and have just
been working on that since that time. Since we knew
we were going to get another tall player this year so
it’s worked out well.”
As the team has grown into its new identity, it
has not been without some hurdles throughout the
process. Earlier this season, despite their new sys-
tem, the Lions struggled offensively and the onus
was put on not the Cottage Grove bigs but on their
guard play.
NEW HEIGHTS continued on B3
This week's athlete
of the week is North
Douglas' Jake
Gerrard. Gerrard hit
a buzzer beater to
defeat Elkton at home
on Friday night.
PHOTOS BY BECKY GERRARD
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
zsilva@cgsentinel.com