6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020
Lillard leads
Blazers past
San Antonio
BAKER WRESTLING
By Erik García Gundersen
Associated Press
Kathy Orr/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Gavin Stone won by major decision over Ontario’s Alijah Huerta Thursday on the Baker mats.
Bulldogs dominate Ontario
■ Baker claims a 64-12 win in the dual match with the district rival Tigers
Baker’s wrestling team rolled to a
64-12 victory over Ontario Thursday in
a district dual on the Baker mats.
The Bulldogs won a majority of the
matches by pin, starting with Colt
Cobb over Ontario’s Nike Sigrah at 220
pounds.
Baker coach Brandon Young said one
of the more competitive matches was
at 132 pounds, with Baker’s Johnny
Niehaus defeating Ontario’s Kyle Wulf.
“It was a good match,” Young said.
“Johnny kind of controlled the match.”
Niehaus placed 4th at the Class 4A
Locals sign
to play for
EOU football
state meet last year, and Wulf was 5th.
Thursday’s match could well be a
preview of the district championship
match at 126 pounds, Young said.
Other Baker winners Thursday
included:
• Jaden Martin pinned Jose
Moncada at 285 pounds
• Caleb Shaw pinned Evan Cama-
cho at 113 pounds
• Ian Feldmeier won by minor
decision over Jaden Schnepp at 152
pounds
• Hon Rushton pinned Alik Sigrah
The (La Grande) Observer
LA GRANDE — The 2020 signing class
for the Eastern Oregon University football
program has a distinctively local fl avor,
and is highlighted by a quintet of athletes
who helped carry the La Grande Tigers to
a state title.
The program announced its signing class
at 182 pounds
• Alex Ritter pinned Jeffery
Schnepp at 195 pounds
• Gavin Stone won by major deci-
sion over Alijah Huerta at 120 pounds
• Jake Eskew pinned Santiago
Brambila at 145 pounds
Young said some Baker wrestlers
will compete at the Pine Eagle Invita-
tional Saturday in Halfway.
He’s in Hillsboro this weekend with
the new Baker girls team, which is
competing in a large tournament with
about 285 wrestlers.
Wednesday, and of the 32 athletes inked by
Eastern Oregon head coach Tim Camp, 14
are from Oregon, led by fi ve players who
will continue their careers in La Grande —
Parker Robinson, Nathan Reed, Spencer
Gerst, Gabe Shukle and Blaine Shaw. The
fi ve signed their letters of intent at a cer-
emony at LHS Thursday afternoon.
PORTLAND — With the trade deadline past and a playoff
race ahead, the Portland Trail Blazers understood the impor-
tance of their game against the San Antonio Spurs.
Damian Lillard had 26 points and 10 assists, Hassan
Whiteside scored 17 points and tied a season-high with 23 re-
bounds as the Trail Blazers beat San Antonio 125-117, taking
two of three games from the Spurs to claim the season series
in matchup with playoff tiebreaker potential.
The Blazers are 2 1/2 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies
for the 8th and fi nal playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Spurs are 4 1/2 games back of Memphis.
“We talked about it,” Lillard said of his team’s mindset
heading into the game. “I think we past the point of saying
‘it’s just another game.’ ... Every game is important, but games
like this are more important because they are one of the
teams that we’re fi ghting for that spot with. It was a tiebreak-
er game, we’re not playing them no more after this. It also
gives us some separation from them. They lost two coming in
here and it would be good for us to give them a third. We got
the game ahead of them and we got the tiebreaker, so it was a
huge game.”
The Blazers got a major boost off their bench from Gary
Trent Jr., who scored 18 points. Trent’s points late were
important as he hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points in the
fourth quarter as Portland rallied from a 92-86 defi cit.
Trent, Lillard says, is giving the Blazers something they
need.
“I think he’s giving us something to be excited about,”
Lillard said. “He’s been consistent. How he’s playing on the
defensive end, how he’s getting to his spots to be effective and
making shots. He’s somebody that has to be accounted for,
especially on a night like tonight, he came up big for us.”
Trent, who barely played as a rookie, has been getting con-
sistent minutes and is shooting nearly 42% from he 3-point
line on four attempts per game.
“It’s like you belong. I work on everything with my coaches
every day, it’s just paying off,” Trent said.
Trey Lyles had a season-high 23 points and 10 rebounds,
DeMar DeRozan added 21 points and LaMarcus Aldridge
added 20 points and eight rebounds for the Spurs.
San Antonio built a 10-point lead multiple times in the fi rst
half, but Portland stayed within reach on the strength of the
play of Lillard (14 points) and McCollum (11 points), trailing
60-59 at halftime.
BMS 7TH-GRADE GIRLS BASKETBALL
Dawgs win 2 games
Baker Middle School’s
seventh-grade girls basketball
team won two games this week.
On Tuesday Baker played
host to La Grande, winning
57-4. Kaydence Thomas led all
scorers with 16 points. Tiyana
Stevens added 14.
On Thursday the Dawgs
traveled to John Day and beat
Grant Union, 31-10.
Emylia Myer led all scor-
ers with 7 points. Stevens
and Thomas added 6 points
each, and Thomas grabbed 11
rebounds.