Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Spartans Warriors take title, Elks finish third
spoil
senior
send-off
Marist game-winner
downs Cottage Grove
on senior night
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
It was one of the top Sky-
Em teams matching up
against one of the teams at
the bottom of the league as
Cottage Grove (5-19, 3-7
Sky-Em) hosted Marist (16-7,
9-1) last Thursday. The Spar-
tans, fresh off a 50-22 victory
over fifth-ranked Marshfield
earlier in the week, had their
hands full against the Lions
as they needed a go-ahead
jumper in the final 15 sec-
onds of play to snag the vic-
tory.
“I’m just proud of these
kids for competing, play-
ing hard. They could have
checked out a long time ago
but they didn’t. They kept
fighting, they kept playing
hard. Buying in,” said first-
year Cottage Grove head
coach Seth Hutchison. Add-
ing, “I’m so proud of these
seniors. On senior night,
coming out playing hard,
playing under control, play-
ing together. And I thought
that was a great performance
that they had out there. It was
nice to see them be competi-
tive on their last game on this
court in that uniform.”
While Marist ran away with
in the first matchup of the
season on the way to a 62-49
win, it was a different offen-
sive story on Thursday. While
the Spartans have shooters up
and down their roster, a com-
bination of a cold shooting
night and the Cottage Grove
defense allowed the Lions to
hang around.
“We didn’t let them get
in a rhythm of shooting. I
thought that was going to
change as the game went on
and as we continued they just
didn’t get hot, they didn’t get
going,” said Hutchison. “And
that happens in high school
basketball. I mean, teams get
hot, team’s don’t shoot very
well. But that’s the nature of
the beast. I thought team de-
fense we played really well
tonight. Together as a team.”
Tied at 10 after one quarter
of play, Cottage Grove sur-
vived scoring just four points
in the second quarter by al-
lowing just seven. The team
hung around and tied the
game going into the fourth
quarter, as they got consis-
tent play from seniors Creed
Lufkin and Dylan Graves
who both finished with 10
points.
“Impressive game for (Cot-
tage Grove). That says a lot
about them and the character
of those kids and their coach-
es to stay with it,” said Marist
head coach, and former
CGHS coach and star-play-
er, Bart Pollard. “There was
a lot of struggle with them, I
think, just looking at their re-
cord. Just good job, I want to
commend them for that.”
In the fourth quarter, the
Spartans looked to start run-
ning away with it before Cot-
tage Grove freshman Landon
Colburn hit a three to cut the
team’s deficit to two with just
over three minutes to play.
Lay-ups from Shambay Trapp
and Lufkin gave the Lions the
lead with two minutes to play.
After a Cottage Grove free
throw and a three-pointer
from Marist, the Lions were
down one in the final minute
CGHS see B3
North Douglas junior Sofia Alcantar, draws a host of Days Creek defenders as she gets to the basket during Saturday’s league championship. Alcantar finished with
seven points to help guide the Warriors to the team title.
North Douglas and
Elkton are headed to
state after a successful
league tournament
over the weekend
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
As the dust settles after a
busy weekend of games, North
Douglas and Elkton are headed
to state.
Last weekend, the Skyline
League District Tournament
took place at Marshfield High
School where the Warriors (22-
4, 11-1 Skyline) cemented their
stand-out season by winning the
league title. With the top three
teams from league advancing to
state, the Elks (15-11, 8-4) also
punched their ticket by winning
Saturday’s third place game.
The following is a look at how
the Warriors and Elks did in
each game over the tournament
weekend.
Friday: North Douglas
vs. Elkton, semifinal
To start the league playoffs,
Elkton defeated Camas Valley
47-25 last Tuesday to advance
to the semifinals. Then, the Elks
were faced with the task of play-
ing North Douglas for the third
time this season and the second
time in less than a week. In the
first two meetings, it was North
Douglas winning on the road by
a margin of 43-19 and at home
36-24.
And in the third meeting of
the year, this time on a neutral
court, it was North Douglas
overpowering the Elks 35-18 for
another win.
“It’s going to be a who exe-
cutes better in what they do.
Sometimes who works harder,”
said North Douglas coach Jeff
Davis on another matchup with
Elkton. “And in our case, we just
tell the kids, 'We may score 60
but what makes us good is how
we defend. We’ve got to play
defense.' So I was proud of the
fact that we kept them under 20.
That’s a team that can win a state
game.”
It was a slog of a first quarter
that saw North Douglas ahead
4-2 after the opening eight min-
utes. Both teams were stymied
by the other’s defensive full-
court press as they struggled to
operate offensively.
With a couple of passes to free
up space, the Warriors unlocked
the Elkton press in the second
quarter as they were able to get
lay-ups. Taking advantage of the
open shots was North Douglas’
Natalie Thompson who finished
the game with 10 points on five-
of-five shooting. The Warriors
outscored the Elks 10-2 in the
quarter to take a 14-4 halftime
lead.
“We talked about that at half-
time that we just needed to re-
lax. We’re putting too much
pressure on ourselves. Just go
Elkton junior Aspyn Luzier drives to the line in the third place
game against Pacific on Saturday.
out and relax and play our game
and whatever happens, hap-
pens. Don’t worry about it,” said
Elkton head coach Rob Parker.
The Elks responded early in
the second half and cut their
deficit to as few as six points
but, as has been the case in each
matchup against North Doug-
las, the team’s offensive weapons
were limited by the defense.
SKYLINE
see B2
Lions continue to fight for second place
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove freshman Gracie Arnold looks to create space
against Marist last Thursday night at home.
Athletes of
the Week
The battle for second place in
the Sky-Em league continues to
rage on.
In an eight-day stretch that
includes the end of the regular
season and the league playoffs,
Cottage Grove will have faced
both Junction City and Marist
twice as the teams fight to deter-
mine the final league standings.
“Everybody’s got to get a rib-
bon, or trophy,” said Cottage
Grove head coach Steve East-
burn sarcastically after Thurs-
day night’s loss against Marist.
“It’s crazy, it’s crazy.”
In the final week of the regu-
lar season last week, the Lions
fell to Junction City and Marist
at home. But a win against Junc-
tion City on Saturday in a league
playoff game now sets Cottage
Grove up for a game against
Marist on Tuesday Feb. 19 (after
This week’s athletes of the
week are the participants
of last Saturday’s
basketball jamboree.
The jamboree brought
together Special Olympic
athletes to Riverside
Church where they got to
compete in the game they
love.
The Sentinel’s print deadline) to
determine which team will get
the Sky-Em two-seed heading
into the state playoffs. Marsh-
field finished first in league.
“So exhausting. It’s so stupid,”
said Marist head coach Britton
Reeser of the system after the
Spartans defeated the Lions last
week.
At the end of the regular sea-
son, the Spartans were alone in
second in the standings with
the Tigers in third and Lions
in fourth. Because of their high
rankings in 4A (Marshfield #1,
Marist #9, Junction City #10
and Cottage Grove #13) all four
teams will qualify for the state
playoffs.
But instead of going into the
playoffs based strictly on the 10
regular season games that were
played over the past six weeks,
the Sky-Em has a league playoff
to further validate the place-
ment of the teams heading into
the playoffs. This meant Cottage
Grove traveling to Junction City
on Saturday night in a game to
determine the fourth place team
with the winner getting another
league playoff game. The Lions
defeated the Tigers for the first
time this season with a 47-45
win. Cottage Grove sophomore
Alexia Riggs hit a three-pointer
in the final seconds of play to
put the team ahead for good.
Riggs finished with 10 points
while freshman Gracie Arnold
added 14 points to go with 13
rebounds.
Last Thursday against Marist,
the Lions lost 44-33. Arnold had
13 points for Cottage Grove,
with nine in the second quarter,
while Matty Ladd had 12 points.
“They are the second place
team for a reason. They can
score the basketball, so they are
LIONS
see B2
The indi-
viduals
that com-
peted in
Saturday’s
event.
PHOTO BY SNAP
SAVAGE PHOTOG-
RAPHY