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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2019)
Sports & recreation Cottage Grove Sentinel Wednesday, January 9, 2019 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Warriors down Wolves for win Section B Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Hidden Valley aided by late rally Hot shooting leads North Douglas past defending league champion Days Creek By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com On Saturday night it was the North Douglas War- riors channeling their inner Golden State Warriors three- point shooting abilities as the team from Drain took down defending league-champion Days Creek at home. Enter- ing the game, North Douglas had made eight three-point- ers on 61 attempts through- out the season. On Saturday the team hit six threes, all coming the first half, on 10 attempts as they rolled to a 48-31 victory. “This is our house and we wanted to bring the energy,” said North Douglas senior Abby Whipple who had 15 points including going three-for-four from three- point range. Whipple did more than just score as she filled the stat sheet with 10 rebounds, five steals, four assists and a block for good measure. While offense has been hard to come by at times this season for North Doug- las, it was not apparent in the opening quarter of play. With a three from Natalie Thompson on the first North Douglas shot of the game, and all three Whipple threes coming in the first quarter, the team was out and rolling. “Really I think the differ- ence sometimes is kids, they receive the ball are they ready to shoot or do they catch it and then decide to shoot? So Abby, if you looked at her shots today, they were in rhythm,” said North Douglas head coach Jeff Davis. Add- ing, “When we make shots early… we’re going to be pretty good for 32 minutes.” The scoring was distributed around the team as Rilie-Jo Olds finished with 12 points and Thompson had 10. But for all the excitement of the fast-paced offense, it was the defense that ulti- mately impressed the home side. As the Wolves wanted to turn the game into a track meet, the Warriors dropped out of their full-court press to make Days Creek beat them in a half-court setting. After falling behind 24-12 at halftime, the Wolves put together a strong third quar- ter but the Warriors were able to weather the storm. Entering the fourth quarter, North Douglas had a nine- point advantaged that they stretched to 19 with a 10-0 run to start the quarter and seal the game. “We still have to hang our hats on how we defend and I was proud of our girls,” said Davis. “Our preseason was good for us tonight because when they made a little run at us – I’m not sure that a year ago we might have col- lapsed. They had a 15 point third quarter and we kind of righted the ship.” One of the players anchor- ing the team on the defen- sive side was Thompson who was primarily matched up against Days Creek’s Moriah WARRIORS see B3 PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Cottage Grove’s Dylan Graves drives the lane against Hidden Valley on Saturday. Graves led Cottage Grove with 13 points and was the only Cottage Grove player to score in the fourth quarter. The visiting Mustangs put together a 26-4 run to slip past Cottage Grove for win By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com It was shaping up to be a double-dig- it Cottage Grove victory against Hidden Valley until both teams did what they have done throughout the year. The vis- iting Mustangs (9-4) have continuously rallied from double-digit deficits while the Lions (1-12) have struggled main- taining rare double-digit leads this sea- son and both teams played true to form on Saturday in Cottage Grove as a tumul- tuous fourth quarter turned into a Hid- den Valley 49-46 comeback victory. “We’ve come from behind for the last two years with this group and it’s incred- ibly frustrating and my blood pressure is higher than it should be but it’s always fun to be a part of a game like this,” said Hidden Valley head coach Alex Keller whose team rallied from 16-points down against Illinois Valley earlier this year. “It’s even more fun to be the one that comes out on top.” Hosting the Sky-Em/Skyline cross- over, a weekend of games pitting the two leagues against each other, the Lions were hungry for a victory and had an 18-point lead midway through the third quarter. After Cottage Grove turnovers and a four-point possession for Hidden Valley (fouled on a three-pointer, made two shots, missed the third foul shot, got the offensive rebound and scored a lay- up), the Mustangs finished the quarter on an 8-2 run to cut their deficit to 12. “[Hidden Valley] did what they need- ed to do and we didn’t do what we need- ed to do to win that game,” said Cottage Grove head coach Seth Hutchison. “They needed extra possessions so they sped the game up and we fed right into it. And that’s exactly what we did. And we need- ed to do the exact opposite. We needed to slow it down, shorten the game and take care of the basketball and get looks that Graves who finished with 13 points on we were getting in the first half. We to- the day. Creed Lufkin had 18 points for tally went away from that. That’s on me.” the Lions. As the Hidden Valley full-court de- “Our conversation between the third fense forced Cottage Grove into turn- and fourth quarter was, ‘Hey, we know overs, the shots that they had been taking LIONS see B3 all game started to fall from everyone on the court. In the final quarter of play, the Mus- tangs outscored Cottage Grove 20-5 and saw five different players score. 10 differ- ent Hidden Val- ley players scored in the game led by Parker Wright with nine points. All of Cottage Grove’s fourth quarter points Cottage Grove’s Creed Lufkin's basket gives the Lions an came from Dylan 18-point lead on Saturday before the Lions fell 49-46. Elks edge past Eagles in league opener Elkton survives turnovers, scoring droughts to get 40-39 victory at home By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Elkton’s Austin Luzier backs down a Yoncalla defender on Friday night. Athlete of the Week In a battle of similar teams – similar win totals, similar close wins and big defeats on the sea- son, similar hopes for their fu- ture with young players – it was Elkton (4-8) doing just enough to get a 40-39 victory over Yoncalla (5-8) on Friday night at home. “Basically you had two teams trying to figure out how to win. It was kind of ugly on both sides and certainly there were plays that we would like to have back and I’m sure Yoncalla would say the same thing but yeah, I’m pleased with our kids,” said Elk- ton head coach Gary Trout. The Elks were able to survive a pair of scoring droughts – a five minute scoreless stretch to start the second quarter and scoring two points, that came in the fi- nal minute, in the third quarter – as they came away with the win despite late turnovers and a six-point deficit to start the final quarter of play. Yoncalla’s Corbin Eichman came up with a steal and three point play to tie the game at 36 with just over 1:30 to play in the fourth quarter. After an Elkton turnover just seconds later, the Eagles looked to hold the ball for the final 1:20 in order to get the last shot. “Tactically I was trying to stall to hold the ball. And put the pres- sure on the defense and I wanted a drive to the basket. I wanted to This week’s athlete of the week is Elkton sophomore Trystn Woody. Woody led Elkton in scoring with 14 points in a win against Yoncalla on Friday night including a pair of made free throws that sealed the victory with 5.8 seconds left in the game. get it down to about 10, five sec- onds and then drive to the bas- ket,” said Yoncalla head coach Darwin Terry. “Players got a little antsy and… we turned the ball over into their hands and gave them an opportunity to score.” Trout urged his team to play simple and smart throughout the game and in the final minute they did just that. It started with working the ball around and finding Spencer Moore down low for the go-ahead lay-up from the block with 23 seconds to play. On the ensuing Yoncalla possession, the Eagles were called for a travel with seven seconds left to play. Looking to extend the game, Yoncalla fouled Elkton sopho- more Trystn Woody who pro- ceeded to knock down a pair of free throws to give the team a four point lead and the vic- ELKS see B3 Trystn Woody leads the offense in a game earlier this season. PHOTO BY BECKY GERRARD