COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 16, 2018
High School
Basketball Standings
Boys Sky-Em League
Team
League Overall
Marshfield
1-0
11-3
Marist
1-0
8-6
Cottage Grove 1-0
3-12
Elmira
0-1
6-7
Junction City 0-1
6-9
Siuslaw
0-1
5-10
Girls Sky-Em League
Team
League Overall
Marshfield
1-0
13-1
Marist
1-0
9-5
Cottage Grove 1-0
9-6
Junction City 0-1
9-6
Siuslaw
0-1
4-11
Elmira
2-11
30
Boys Skyline League
Team
League Overall
Riddle
3-0
13-0
UVC
3-1
11-3
Days Creek
3-1
9-5
North Douglas 3-1
8-6
Pacific
3-1
7-7
Camas Valley 2-2
6-7
Elkton
1-3
4-11
NHC
1-3
3-10
Milo
0-0
5-4
Glendale
0-3
0-10
Yoncalla
0-4
5-10
3B
Cottage Grove holds on for win over Siuslaw
Lions survive shaky
shooting and start
league-play with
victory
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove did enough to
win and, for head coach Steve
Eastburn, that was all that mat-
tered.
“We don’t go by style points
or anything, we go by the
scoreboard,” he said as the Cot-
tage Grove girls (9-6) recorded
a 39-34 victory over Siuslaw
(4-11) Friday night on the
road. The Lions were plagued
all night by missed shots at the
rim as they finished 14-of-53
from the field. But even when
the shots weren’t falling, East-
burn had a simple message to
the team.
“You can’t be discouraged
just because [your shots are]
not going, so you’ve got to
tell the girls to keep shooting
them. You’ve got to take them.
You’ve got to take them regard-
less because you can’t back off
just because you’re missing a
few,” he said. “Otherwise you
might hurt their confidence
and you don’t want to do that.
So yeah, it was a struggle. It
was a struggle.”
In the fourth quarter, Cot-
tage Grove trailed early before
a Sam May three pointer gave
the team the lead which they
would never relinquish. The
Vikings cut their deficit to two
in the final two minutes before
Reilly Kelty got a lay-up to go
over a crowd of defenders with
1:30 to play. After a Matty Ladd
block on the defensive end, the
Lions looked to seal the game
on offense but missed four lay-
ups in the final 40 seconds of
play before capturing the vic-
tory.
“Well the kids competed. It’s
anytime you get a win on the
road it’s a really good thing and
anytime you get a league win
on the road it’s an even better
thing. I was really pleased with
their effort,” said Eastburn.
They faced adversity and they
fought through it and they, you
know, kept their composure,
and like I said, they pulled out
a win. So kudos to those guys
because a lot of things didn’t
come real easy tonight but they
battled through it. They had
a lot of mental toughness to-
night.”
Throughout the night the
Siuslaw defense met Cottage
Grove with constant double
and triple teams in the post as
they tried to make life difficult
for the Lions. They could only
hold the team down for so long
as Ladd finished the game with
18 points and Kelty added 12
for the visiting team.
Siuslaw’s shooting woes were
present throughout the game
and despite holding Cottage
Grove to 16 points in the first
half, the Vikings had just 12
points. Siuslaw shot 12-of-47
from the field. What made
the difference in the game
was Cottage Grove using their
height and physicality to their
advantage as they fought for
rebounds and had a 40-20 ad-
vantage on the day.
“I’ll take any league win, I
don’t care who it’s against so it
was big tonight especially be-
ing the opener on the road. We
weathered it and now we can
move forward,” said Eastburn.
The road forward does not
get easier as number-one
ranked Marshfield (13-1)
played Cottage Grove on Tues-
day after The Sentinel’s dead-
line. On Friday the Lions host
Elmira (2-11).
Cottage Grove’s Reilly Kelty makes her way to the basket.
The Cottage Grove defense swarms a Siuslaw ballhandler.
Warriors use patience to roll past Elks
North Douglas ball
movement and 24-3
run guide team to
victory
Girls Skyline League
Team
League Overall
North Douglas 4-0
12-3
Pacific
3-0
9-6
Days Creek
3-1
7-7
NHC
2-1
6-7
Elkton
2-2
7-8
Camas Valley 1-2
5-8
Yoncalla
1-3
5-10
Milo
0-0
2-7
Riddle
0-3
1-10
UVC
0-4
6-8
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
North Douglas’ Koldan Frieze drives against Yoncalla on
Friday night.
ONE
STOP
SHOP
North Douglas head coach
Tyler Vancil just wanted his
team to be patient. Instead of
using their athleticism to speed
the game up, the team slowed
things down.
“We’ve had so many times
where we think we can push it
and go and go and we’ll over-
throw the pass or we’ll throw
it and drop it off our leg out of
bounds. We get like four or five
turnovers a game pushing it too
fast,” said Vancil. “We’ve been
really talking about hey, if we’ve
got it, and we’ve got the pass, go.
But if not, let’s pull it out and
run the offense.”
On Saturday night on the road
at Elkton (4-11), the Warriors
(8-6) executed a master class in
patience and ball-movement as
they defeated the Elks 51-24.
Elkton was keeping it close
early, but a North Douglas 24-3
run stretching from the end of
the second quarter to the start
of the fourth slowed the game
down and secured the victory.
It was death by a thousand cuts
as North Douglas honed in on
passing the ball well to find easy
shots.
“I said, ‘Let’s reverse the ball,
two, three times.’ Reverse, re-
verse, reverse, reverse and we
did it three, four times on one
possession, Jake (Gerrard) drove
right in, dumped it off to Tanner
(Parks), wide open,” said Vancil.
“Next time down, two, three,
four times and it just opened up
the flood gates. For the defense,
that many reverses, it’s tiring.”
North Douglas was led in
scoring by Cal Parks with 15
points and Tanner Parks with 14
on the game.
For Elkton, they focused in
the moments in the first half
where they stayed competitive
in the game.
“We played some of our best
basketball there in stretches and
then just kind of got away from
that a little bit,” said head coach
Gary Trout. “I don’t know if it
was fatigue or maybe just a lack
of confidence. A lack of expe-
rience for sure. You saw some
good basketball there for a bit.”
Austin Luzier led Elkton in
scoring with seven points.
After Saturday night’s win and
a Friday night victory over Yon-
calla, the Warriors are now 3-1
in league play.
“It feels great. The last three
games we’ve played we’re play-
ing really well. You know, we
played against a tough Days
Creek team at home, won that
game and this week, and even
that game, we were still forcing
it too much,” said Vancil. “And
so it’s really been this week that
we’ve really talked about, ‘Hey,
let’s be patient.’” The team now
will host Riddle (13-0) on Fri-
day before going to Pacific (7-7)
on Saturday.
This week Elkton will face
Riddle at home on Saturday.
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Left: Natalie Thompson locks in on defense against Yoncalla on Friday. Right: Abby Whipple drives
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S entinel
C ottage G rove
116 N. 6th St.
P.O. Box 35
Cottage Grove, OR
(541) 942-3325
fax (541) 942-3328
www.cgsentinel.com
Elkton finished eight-of-42
from the floor and had four
makes in the final two minutes
of the game. Aspyn Luzier and
Kieryn Carnes each had six
points for Elkton.
“Didn’t play well, didn’t play
hard. Didn’t stick with what we
are supposed to do. All those
things,” said Elkton head coach
Rob Parker. “You know…some-
times they make the game big-
ger than it is.”
With the victory, North
Douglas has won eight games
in a row and the team is now
ranked sixth in the OSAA rank-
ings. On Friday the Warriors de-
feated Yoncalla 33-22. The team
hosts Riddle (1-10) on Friday
before making the trek to Pacific
(9-6) on Saturday.
For Elkton, the team is now
2-2 in league play but still the
second highest ranked team
(16th) in the league. The Elks
lost to Days Creek 44-31 on Fri-
day. This Friday the team hosts
Riddle.