Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
North Douglas
dominant in
victory over
Elkton
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Lions start league-play with win
Warriors use strong
defense in wire-to-
wire win
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Entering the game, it was an
outstanding defense matched
up against an electric offense.
The North Douglas girls’ bas-
ketball team that has held
teams to an average of 29
points per game facing against
cross-county rival Elkton, a
team that has been scoring
nearly 50 points a game.
But on Saturday night in
Elkton, it was the power of de-
fense guiding North Douglas
to a dominant 43-19 victory
over the Elks.
“That’s who we’ve been a
long time. Hidden amongst
all that talent we’ve had in the
past and all that size is that the
kids play defense,” said North
Douglas head coach Jeff Da-
vis.
The Warriors held Elkton
scoreless in the first quarter, to
two points in the third quar-
ter and, until North Douglas
emptied their bench, the Elks
had not scored in the fourth.
“The game starts on the
defensive end. Until the last
minute thirty, [Elkton] had
10 points. Every shot they
got was contested,” said Da-
vis. “And you know, thought
the kids stayed on the ground
well, thought they communi-
cated on screens well. We’ve
got a couple of really good de-
fenders on our team.”
Included in that mix is se-
nior Riley Black, a regular on
the Skyline first-team all-de-
fensive team; senior Abby
Whipple who had four steals
on the game and was constant-
ly thwarting the Elkton of-
fense; and sophomore Natalie
Thompson who, throughout
the season, has been given the
task of guarding the opposing
team’s top offensive player.
“I play my game. They are
part of the team so it doesn’t
matter if it’s their best play-
er, I just play my game,” said
Thompson on her defensive
matchups for each game.
“Here’s the way [Natalie’s]
wired: she came out, she’s hur-
tin’ and I said, ‘Come let me
know when you’re ready,’” said
Davis. “And she comes over
about 10-seconds later, ‘I’m
okay, coach,’ and of course has
that big smile.”
On Saturday, it was also
Thompson’s offense that stood
out as she led the team with
17 points. Whipple added 10
points and nine rebounds for
the Warriors. North Douglas
poured on 13 points in the
first quarter for a 13-0 lead
and just build on their advan-
tage throughout the night and
at one point led 43-10.
For Elkton – where the
whole school seemed to be
sick within the last week in-
cluding the principal, bas-
ketball coach, the basketball
team and the band – nothing
was working and the team was
missing their long shots and at
the rim.
“That happens sometimes.
When you’re missing your
layups and bunnies, close
shots around the basket… I
don’t know what you do,” said
Elkton head coach Rob Park-
er. “And then what happens is
because we start missing, they
start changing what they on
offense, they start looking for
outside shots. And if you’re
not making your bunnies
you’re probably not going to
make those either.”
WARRIORS
see B3
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
All five Siuslaw defenders are locked in on Cottage Grove’s Erick Giffen as he looks to drive to the basket. Giffen gave the defense problems throughout the night as he
finished with 22 points in a Cottage Grove 59-42 victory.
Cottage Grove defeats Siuslaw
on the road 59-42 to start
Sky-Em season
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
After opening the season with 10
straight losses, it was Cottage Grove,
winners of three of their last five games,
starting league play with a victory. Friday
night on the road the Lions (3-12) se-
cured a 59-42 victory over Siuslaw (5-10)
to open the Sky-Em regular season.
“We can’t let preseason define us and
define our season. The seniors and the
coaches have just been preaching, getting
better every day, showing up to games
ready to play and by the end of league,
hopefully, we’ll be at our peak to make
the tournament,” said Cottage Grove se-
nior Erick Giffen after the victory.
Giffen, who finished the night with 22
points, was the catalyst for the Cottage
Grove offense early as he scored 13 points
in the opening quarter of play. With shots
from distance, at the rim and at the free
throw line, Giffen was scoring in a variety
ways whenever he wanted to as the away
side jumped out to a 19-8 lead.
“In the first quarter I was just playing
really aggressive and getting good looks
and my teammates were getting real-
ly open, too. So when they were open I
would just give them the ball and cut and
they would give it right back,” said Giffen.
“So our offense was just really clicking in
the first quarter and it started on defense,
too. We had really good defense.”
Siuslaw struggled against the Cottage
Grove defense and the team was rush-
ing shots from the inside as they tried
to avoid the outstretched arms of Creed
Lufkin, Jasper Nichols-Ferguson or
Shambay Trapp. The Lions finished with
nine blocks on the night including six
from Nichols-Ferguson.
As the Vikings stopped looking inside
for offense, they were buoyed by the three
ball and hit three three-pointers to close
the half on a 9-1 run to cut their deficit
to 10.
“Defensively I thought we played pret-
ty well. Forcing tough shots is something
I preach all the time," said first-year Cot-
tage Grove head coach Seth Hutchison.
“You know, force tough shots over the
hand, limit second shots and we can be a
good team defensively.”
After a seven point third quarter from
both teams, the Vikings looked to make a
run but it was Cottage Grove, a team that
has been susceptible to giving up leads,
putting together a late 9-2 run to seal the
victory to start 1-0 in league play.
“Our team is starting to mature in the
Cottage Grove’s Jasper Nichols-Fergu-
son blocks a Siuslaw shot on Friday.
Nichols-Ferguson recorded six blocks
on the day.
sense that okay, [Siuslaw is] going on
a 4-0 run, we’ve got to pull it out, we’ve
got to get a good shot, end that run. Take
the momentum back,” said Hutchison.
“That’s something they’re starting to real-
ize as the season goes on and that comes
with experience and I think they’re start-
ing to get that experience.”
Lufkin finished the day for Cottage
Grove with 13 points.
The victory marked Cottage Grove's
second straight win after defeating 5A
Crook County earlier in the week 49-40.
“That Crook County game kind of just
showed us what we’re capable of if we
put it all together. And we still had some
lapses in that game but you know, you
can see the light bulb starting to click,
you can see things start to process quick-
er in the kids minds and it shows,” said
Hutchison. “These games show us what
we are capable of you know and if we do
the things that makes us successful, take
care of the basketball, take good shots, we
limit turnovers, that’s what happens.”
On Tuesday, after The Sentinel’s print
deadline, Cottage Grove played third-
ranked Marshfield (11-3) at home. On
Friday the team hosts Elmira (6-7).
Cottage Grove victorious in busy week
Over three days of wrestling,
Lions have success including
Sky-Em dual meet title
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove’s Logan Lowerey records a pin against Creswell on Wednesday night.
Lowerey won his weight class at the Sutherlin Wrestling Classic on Saturday.
Athlete of
the Week
The Cottage Grove wrestling season
is divided into two parts.
“BC and AC,” said coach Rich Her-
zog. “You’ve got Before Christmas and
After Christmas.”
“BC” the team puts the work in, gets
in shape and continues to learn new
skills. Now in the “AC” stretch of the
season, Herzog sees that this team is
working into their top shape as they are
in the heart of the schedule and prepare
for districts in the not-too-distant fu-
ture.
Last week, the team was able to turn
their “BC” training into “AC” results in
a full week of wrestling that featured the
team winning the Sky-Em Dual Cham-
pionship for the first time since 2010.
This week’s athlete of the week is North
Douglas’ Tanner Parks. Parks had 14 points
against Elkton on Saturday night and continues
to be an instrumental part of the offense.
“The kid is five-foot-eleven at best, maybe
six foot, if he’s wearing big shoes,” said North
Douglas coach Tyler Vancil about Parks. “He just
plays much bigger than he is and that’s a great
thing to have.”
To read more about North Douglas, turn to B3.
The week also saw the team win a three-
way dual meet at Creswell on Wednes-
day and take seventh at the Sutherlin
Wrestling Classic on Saturday.
“So [the meets are] a coaches’ re-
port card: how well are we doing? And
I’ve got my little notebook that I pack
around and take notes and that’s what
we work on for the week,” said Herzog.
“This is the grind for us this week.”
The week started on a positive as the
Lions went to Creswell and defeated
Churchill, South Eugene and the home
team.
In the seven matches against Chur-
chill, five Cottage Grove wrestlers re-
corded pins on the way to a 51-12 team
victory. Against the Axe the Lions con-
tinued to roll as they won 60-4 with five
wrestlers winning via fall.
Cottage Grove’s Fernando Soto-Cruz,
with what was the match of the day
for the Lions, won his match at the
WRESTLING
see B2
Tanner Parks
takes a free
throw against
Yoncalla last
Friday night.
PHOTO BY BECKY
GERRARD