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Sports & recreation Cottage Grove Sentinel Wednesday, January 2, 2019 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Section B Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Crosshill Warriors go undefeated at McKenzie Christian races past Elkton Elkton boys basketball goes 1-2 over weekend at McKenzie By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com It was over as soon as it started. Saturday at the McKen- zie 1A Hoops Classic it was Crosshill Christian hitting six threes in the opening quarter of play and racing out to a 29-5 lead against Elkton as they went on to win 72-38. “We can’t play at that pace. We can’t practice at that pace. And difficulty handling the basketball and controlling our emotions a little bit as far as being able to handle the intensity of the situation. So that was that,” said Elkton head coach Gary Trout. The Eagles (9-2) swarmed the Elks (3-8) as their defen- sive press led to open looks from around the court. “We’ve got some good shooters from outside and today we’re knocking it down. We were really doing a good job at inside outside,” said Crosshill Christian head coach Brian Spaulding. “We talked about pregame of looking inside, getting our guards to space and kicking it back out. I thought we did that tremendously in the first quarter.” Four Crosshill Christian players finished in double figures with Carter Knox, who hit five threes in the game, and Tyler Hess each with 17 on the day. Bryce Tirrill and Kyler Vanderhoof had 15 and 10 points respec- tively. With some of Crosshill Christian’s starters on the bench and their press called off, the Elks began to exe- cute their half-court offense in the second quarter as they were outscored 12-10. “He pulled some kids but I was pleased with how we responded. We didn’t fold, we didn’t – we kept battling and trying to do our stuff and play within ourselves and for the most part I was pretty pleased with that,” said Trout. Austin Luzier led the Elks in scoring with 15 points on the game. Spencer Moore scored seven points. To start the McKenzie Hoops Classic on Thursday, Elkton defeated McKenzie (1-8) 66-50. Mason Cox had 20 points and 11 re- bounds while Luzier added 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Moore had 14 points. On Saturday the team lost to Hosanna Christian (6-2) 77-44. Trystn Woody had 15 points while Jadyn Woody had nine. Luzier added nine assists and eight rebounds. “We need to get better. We knew that. We’re play- ing tough teams, Crosshill is a potential Baker team and Hosanna is as well,” said Trout. “So we’re playing good teams and if we can learn from that experience and get ourselves better. Because if we’re not playing tough teams we’re not figur- ing that out.” Elkton will begin their ELKTON see B2 PHOTOS BY BECKY GERRARD Left: In a physical game against McKenzie, North Douglas’ Nicki Derrick drives the floor. Right: North Douglas sophomore Natalie Thompson grabs a board and helps the Warriors win the rebounding battle 42-15 on Saturday. Hanging on for a win over McKenzie, the North Douglas girls go 3-0 at the 1A Hoops Classic By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com While the North Douglas offense was slow to come to life, the Warriors were able to come up big in the final minute of play on the way to a 31-28 victory over McKenzie on Saturday on the final day of the McKenzie 1A Hoops Classic. While the Warriors (8-3) scored just two points in the first quarter of the game, offensive woes became a thing of the past in the final minute of play when Nicki Derrick hit a jumper from the el- bow to tie the game. Sofia Alcantar then hit a free throw to take back the lead and Abby Whipple hit a pair from the line to extend their lead over the Eagles (1-9) to three in the final seconds of action. “We have a history from last year to this, a reputation of probably not being a great shooting team. But I feel that there is promise,” said North Douglas head coach Jeff Davis. “It’s going to come, it’s going to click.” While the shots wouldn’t fall for the Warriors, the team kept shooting as they finished the night 11-50 from the field and more than double McKenzie’s shot attempts (the Eagles were an efficient 9-of-21 from the floor). Where North Douglas controlled the game was in re- bounding. The Warriors came away with 42 on the night – Natalie Thompson nine, Rilie-Jo Olds seven, Riley Black and Whipple six – while McKenzie had 15 as a team. Tied at the half 9-9, the game picked up speed in the second half as the teams began to find their offense. North Doug- las was led by Black who finished with 11 points on the day. Whipple added six points. As the game remained close in the sec- ond half, it grew more and more physical. After seeing a bruise on one of his players and seeing another player pushed in the back with no foul awarded, Davis shared his frustrations with the referees which led to two swift technical fouls and his ejection from the game. “You know it seemed like, and we al- ways defend our kids, that we were get- ting hammered a lot at the basket. On almost, in my opinion, about every shot,” said Davis. “The one that got me most where I raised my voice was right in front of me and whichever official it was, it doesn’t matter, I know, and two McK- enzie girls who were just doing what they were taught to do, adjust to the officiat- ing, just beat the snot out of Abby.” Davis added, “I just said, 'Man, some- body is going to get hurt out here. I’m tired of watching our kids get beat up.' T. And I said something after that and he’s just listening, he’s looking for some- thing.” The Eagles were awarded four free throws and after making a pair, it was a two-point game with 47.9 seconds left in the third quarter. Heading into the fourth quarter as- sistant coach Craig Lannom, who had received a warning from the officiating crew earlier in the game after standing up to yell in instructions to the team, helped the team regroup. North Douglas held the team until McKenzie pulled ahead with a pair of made free throw with 1:27 left to play before the Warriors took back the lead and the game. “So again, finding the glass half-full is that all that went on, shot terribly but made free throws when we had to and got some stops when we had to and found a way to win. As that old saying goes, win- ners find a way. Never underestimate the heart of a champ. And these guys have some pedigree,” said Davis. “We can grind through one when we’re not shoot- ing well or the officiating is marginal.” Last Thursday at McKenzie, the War- riors defeated Alsea (4-6) 40-33. Whip- ple had 12 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four assists as Thompson had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors. On Friday the Warriors took down WARRIORS see B3 North Douglas’ Riley Black led the team in scoring Saturday with 11 points. Elks overpower Alsea for victory Elkton girls basketball take care of business against Wolverines and finish 2-1 on weekend By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Elkton’s Kieryn Carnes drives the lane against Alsea. Athlete of the Week After a first quarter scoring surge, the Elkton girls basketball team was able to cruise to a 58-41 victory over Alsea on the final day of the McKen- zie 1A Hoops Classic last Saturday. But while the team’s lead hovered around 15 points for the final three quarters, not everyone was at ease. “I didn’t feel comfortable the whole game,” said Elkton head coach Rob Parker. The Elks (5-6) and Wolverines (4-6) traded buckets in the opening minutes before an Elkton timeout spurred the team to a 10-0 run to fin- ish out the quarter. Throughout the first quarter, sharp-shooter Aspyn Luzier hit three three-point- ers to spark the team’s offense. Luzier finished with This week’s athlete of the week is Elkton’s Aspyn Luzier. Over the three games of the McKenzie 1A Hoops Invitational Luzier hit 13 three-pointers including seven made threes in a win over McKenzie. a game-high 17 points. “It just opens up the middle more,” Parker said of Luzier’s shooting touch. “We’ll run plays for her and we have counters if they do pick her up. And so it allows us to do other things, too.” The rest of the game ebbed and flowed between the Wolverines looking poised to make a rally and Elkton coming up with a bucket to keep their sizable lead. Alsea would break the Elkton press, but miss the lay-up. Elkton’s defense would force a turnover and then allow easy buckets. “A quarter looked good but I think we just kind of put it in cruise control after that we let them back into it and then we pick it back up a little bit,” said Parker. Ultimately, the Elkton defense helped secure the victory as the team came up with 14 steals. The Wolverines finished the day with 30 turnovers. Leading the way for the Elks, on both sides of the ball, was Kieryn Carnes who finished with 14 ELKS see B2 Aspyn Luzier PHOTO BY BECKY GERRARD