Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Elkton hosts
Tip-Off
Classic
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Lions power past Bulldogs in opener
Four teams come
to Elkton to start
basketball season
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Last weekend’s Elkton
Classic followed a simple
script: Monroe beat every-
one while Elkton and North
Douglas beat Willamette
Valley Christian.
The four-school event
took place last Friday and
Saturday and saw the boys’
and girls’ teams of each
school play a pair of games.
There was plenty of action
and plenty of games. Here is
a closer look at how North
Douglas and Elkton per-
formed at the annual event.
North Douglas Girls
Game 1: Monroe 49, NDHS
24
Game 2: NDHS 46, Willa-
mette Valley Christian 33
On Friday night, a tal-
ented 2A Monroe side was
ready to play.
“They hit us with a little
barrage and we just didn’t
respond,” said North Doug-
las head coach Jeff Davis.
The Dragons were over-
powering and they turned
31 North Douglas turn-
overs into 27 points as they
stormed away with the win.
Senior Kyndal Martin led
the way with 21 points and
seven rebounds.
Sophomore
Natalie
Thompson led North Doug-
las in scoring with 12 points
while Sam MacDowell, Abby
Whipple and Riley Black
each added four points for
the team.
“The conversation last
night was about the num-
ber of turnovers we had and
what kind they were. They
were about our body lan-
guage, our competitiveness.
Our approach to the game,”
said Davis.
On Saturday, the Warriors
had new life as they paired
a strong fourth quarter per-
formance with an all-around
complete game from Whip-
ple that lifted the team to
their first win of the season.
When the North Douglas
offense half-court would
stagnate, it was Whipple
there time and time again
to lift the team up. She fin-
ished with 21 points go with
10 rebounds, six steals, three
assists and two blocks.
“Abby was more asser-
tive… on both ends of the
floor. She picked up two
quick fouls last night so we
had to take her out,” said Da-
vis. “And we’ve got to have
her available, we choose
when she comes out. Not the
officials.”
Tied at the half at 19,
the WVC defense started
to more closely hone in on
Whipple which opened up
scoring chances for Thomp-
son. Thompson finished the
game with 16 points.
“You know, the Thompson
kid is tough as nails. Not a
lot of high school experi-
ence but you watch her over
the course of the season and
she’s just going to get better.
She’s tough,” said Davis.
A two-point game head-
ing into the final quarter of
play ballooned into an easy
North Douglas victory as
the team picked apart WVC
with their half-court offense,
press break and the same out
of bounds play that twice re-
sulted in a wide open layup;
the combination of all three
turned into a 17-point quar-
ter.
TIP-OFF
see B3
PHOTOS BY ANGELICA MANUNTAG/CGHS PHOTOGRAPHY
Cottage Grove’s Reilly Kelty goes up to block a shot last Thursday night against North Bend at home.
Cottage Grove gets
stronger throughout
the game to capture
opening night victory
over North Bend
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
While North Bend hung
around early, it was the Cottage
Grove girls’ basketball team
outlasting the Bulldogs on the
way to a 43-24 season-opening
victory at home last Thursday.
Leading the way for the Lions
was a pair of post players in
Reilly Kelty and Ema Gardner
who finished with 13 and 12
points respectively.
But in the early going, North
Bend was hanging around and
finding ways to work past the
Cottage Grove defense that of-
ten features a trio of six-foot
players on the backline while
the Bulldogs’ tallest player stood
at 5-foot-9. Regardless of height,
North Bend took a fleeting first
quarter lead.
“At times (our defense) was
good and at times, especially
late in the game, it was horrific.
Just horrific. We were stand-
ing, we were getting split. They
were zipping passes through us,
we weren’t rebounding on the
backside,” said first-year Cot-
tage Grove head coach Steve
Eastburn. “So we will work on
that tomorrow.”
But the lead was short-lived
as the Cottage Grove offense
began working past the North
Bend zone at the end of the first
quarter and outscoring the Bull-
dogs 13-6 in the second quarter.
“We had been struggling in
practice against zone stuff so
that was really good that we got
to see that and we got to work 32
minutes on our weakness. And
I thought we got better as the
game went on, moving the ball,”
said Eastburn. “You know, the
one extra pass and stuff. Starting
to take some perimeter shots
that they were afraid to take ear-
ly on. Whether they go in or not,
we’ve got to take them.”
The Lions developed a com-
fortable lead as eight different
Cottage Grove players scored
on the night. Freshman Gracie
Arnold had eight points while
five Lions (Tara Child, Sam
May, Mikaela Blomquist, Megan
Schatz and Matty Ladd) each
scored two points.
Cottage Grove just edged out
North Bend in rebounding 34-
31 but committed 31 turnovers
on the day.
“It’s good to put the uniforms
on, run, play somebody differ-
ent,” Eastburn said of the team’s
first game of the season. Adding,
“I think we have enough experi-
ence through the coaching staff
that (the on-court performance)
will take care of itself. But let’s
build some really strong rela-
tionships where, when we face
adversity, we’re strong. We’re
strong. And the girls, we have a
really good group of girls.”
The Lions played Gladstone
last night (past The Sentinel’s
print deadline) and face Hid-
den Valley tomorrow (Dec. 6) at
home and travel to North Valley
on Saturday (Dec. 8).
Sawyer Weybright steps up the defense for Cottage Grove.
Frank leads North Bend to road win
know, one game doesn’t define your
season,” said first-year head coach Seth
There were no panic bells going off Hutchison after the loss. “I thought this
one game into the season, but Cottage was a good stepping – you know, just
Grove received a harsh dose of reality last kind of a bar to gauge where we’re at.
Thursday in their season opener as North We’ve got to go back to work.”
Offense proved hard to come by for the
Bend came to town and ran past the Li-
Lions
throughout the contest as they hit
ons for a 60-39 victory.
just
eight
field goals on the day.
“It’s a long season. It’s a process. You
For North Bend, a newly 5A
squad, guard Jayden Frank was
on a scoring mission from the
first possession. Frank, who
was player of the year in the Far
West League a season ago in ad-
dition to second-team all-state,
scored at will netting a game-
high 27 points on the day.
“I think I was just being ag-
gressive, sometimes a little
overly aggressive in turning
the ball over but I think being
aggressive from the get-go and
setting the tone early helped us
out,” said Frank. “It was a great
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL way to start. First game, every-
North Bend’s Jayden Frank drives to the basket.
body is a little nervous, every-
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Athlete of
the Week
body is a little rusty and we got to get
back into it. To go out there and play a
good game like that, it means a lot going
forward.”
Cottage Grove trailed by nine in the
early goings of the first quarter but a six-
point scoring surge in the last minute
lifted the team to within five points head-
ing into the second quarter. Instead of a
trend, it proved to be just a fluke from
Cottage Grove as North Bend opened
up the second quarter with a 15-2 run to
push the Lions away.
The Lions struggled to find an offen-
sive rhythm scoring just one field goal
in the quarter but being aided by six
made free throws by senior guard Erick
Giffen. Giffen finished a perfect eight-of-
eight from the line as he led the team in
scoring with 12 points on the night. As
a team, Cottage Grove finished 23-of-29
from the line.
“I think we played great defense,” said
North Bend’s Frank. “I think the only
time they got baskets was when we fouled
and they were at the free throw line or we
didn’t get back on defense in transition.
This week’s athlete of the
week is North Douglas’
Abby Whipple. On Saturday
against Willamette Valley
Christian, Whipple had
21 points, 10 rebounds, six
steals, three assists and two
blocks.
I think our defense really started every-
thing for us.”
Things didn’t get better for Cottage
Grove after halftime as North Bend out-
scored them 20-6 in the third quarter.
The Lions scored just one field goal in the
third and early in the fourth trailed by 30.
With the North Bend starters out,
the Lions found a modicum of offense
scoring 12 points in the quarter. Dylan
Graves and Creed Lufkin each finished
with eight points for Cottage Grove.
“We’ve got to get tougher. We’ve got to
be a little more physical. We’ve got to buy
in to what we’re running,” said Hutchi-
son. “I think we were taking steps in that,
but this is a whole new offense. I don’t
expect them to know it right off the bat.
Like I said, it’s a good bar-setting game.
And let’s go from there. Yeah, move on to
the next one.”
Yesterday (after The Sentinel’s press
deadline) the Lions hosted Gladstone at
home. On Saturday (Dec. 8) they have
their first road test as they face North
Valley before returning home Tuesday
(Dec. 11) to host Sisters.
Abby Whip-
ple pulls up
to shoot at
the Elkton
Tip-Off over
the week-
end.
PHOTO BY BECKY
GERRARD