TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A5
SPORTS
Utah ends Ducks’ playoff hopes
By JOHN COON
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah
ended Oregon’s College Foot-
ball Playoff hopes in dominant
fashion. The Ducks’ 38-7 loss
Saturday night, Nov. 20 also
ended any chance the Pac-12
champion will claim one of the
bids in the four-team playoff.
Neither Oregon nor Utah
will fi nish high enough in the
College Football Playoff rank-
ings to earn a bid. It means
that the Pac-12 will not send
its champion to the playoff for
a fourth consecutive season.
“It hurts because there
were a lot of expectations,”
Oregon quarterback Anthony
Brown said. “The potential was
there, and we didn’t maximize.
We didn’t grab the opportunity
that was right in front of us.”
The No. 4 Ducks never
really had a chance against
the Utes after No. 24 Utah
scored 14 points in the fi nal 27
seconds before halftime to take
a four-touchdown lead. Britain
Covey returned a punt 78
yards for a touchdown on the
fi nal play of the fi rst half.
“It really was a tough
situation for them coming out
and being down 28-0,” Utes
coach Kyle Whittingham said.
“That was really the biggest
portion of the game and the
thing that really gave us a ton
of momentum.”
Tavion Thomas ran for 94
yards and three touchdowns to
help the Utes (8-3, 7-1 Pac-12,
No. 23 CFP) wrap up a share
of the Pac-12 South title and a
spot in the conference cham-
pionship game. Utah has won
four in a row.
Thomas has run for a Utah-
record 17 touchdowns this
season. The previous mark was
15, shared by Zack Moss and
John White IV.
Lillard has
season-high
39 points,
Trail Blazers
beat 76ers
By ERIK GARCÍA GUNDERSEN
The Blazers closed the
game with Larry Nance
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Damian
Lillard scored a season-high
39 points to help the Port-
land Trail Blazers beat the
Philadelphia 76ers 118-111
on Saturday night, Nov. 20.
The All-Star guard, fi ght-
ing his way out of a slump
early in the season, was 10
for 21 from the fi eld and
made all 14 free throws.
“He earned every single
one of those 14 free throws
tonight,” Blazers coach
Chauncey Billups said. “I
think this is more what
people are accustomed to
seeing when he attacks, him
getting double-fi gure free
throws.”
Lillard struggled with
his shot to start the season,
shooting career-lows across
the board. But the six-time
All-Star believes he is start-
ing to round into form on
the offensive end.
“I said it after we played
Philly (Nov. 1): These mo-
ments give you an opportu-
nity to rise. It shows your
true character, whether you
can deal with hard times
and criticism,” Lillard said.
“The last fi ve or six games,
I’m starting to feel better
and better. I still don’t feel
completely in form but I’m
getting there.”
CJ McCollum added
18 points, Norman Powell
had 17, and Jusuf Nurkic
fi nished with 11 points and
11 rebounds. Portland im-
proved to 8-1 at home and,
at 9-8, is above .500 for the
fi rst time since Oct. 31.
Jr. in place of Nurkic for
the third straight game.
After being subbed out for
Nance with 4:23 remaining
after committing two fouls
seconds apart, Nurkic threw
his mouthguard on the fl oor
in frustration before Lillard
spoke to him on the bench.
“Any time you get
subbed out of the game late,
there’s going to be frustra-
tion,” Lillard said. “It’s
happened a few times over
this homestand if teams go
small. I told him, ‘I under-
stand why you’re upset.’ I
would be more curious if he
wasn’t upset. But I told him
on both of those fouls that
he got, if his man turns the
corner, it’s my job to be the
help. He’s got to trust that
the low man is going to be
there.”
Said Billups: “If the big
picks up two quick fouls,
they’re going to keep going
to that, so I went back to
Larry so we can switch 1
through 5. At the end of the
day, I’m just trying to get
the win however we can
get it.”
Tobias Harris and
Tyrese Maxey each scored
28 points for Philadelphia.
Joel Embiid missed his
seventh straight game after
entering the NBA’s CO-
VID-19 health and safety
protocols.
Harris’ layup cut the
Blazers’ lead to 97-95 at the
6:18 mark, but that was the
closest the 76ers would get
in the second half.
Cameron Rising threw
for 178 yards. His top target,
Brant Kuithe, piled up 118
yards on fi ve catches for just
the second 100-yard game of
his career. Covey had 191 all-
purpose yards.
Utah converted 11 of 14
third downs and fi nished with
386 total yards.
Brown threw for 231 yards
and a touchdown for Oregon
(9-2, 6-2 Pac-12, No. 3 CFP).
Oregon rushed for only 63
yards and had 294 yards of
offense.
“Our biggest thing was just
owning the line of scrimmage,”
Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd
said. “We weren’t going to try
to switch up our scheme or do
anything special.”
The Ducks now face a
must-win situation against
Oregon State on Saturday, Nov.
27 to clinch the Pac-12 North
title and guarantee a title
game rematch with Utah in
two weeks.
“Everybody’s upset and
disappointed like we should
be,” Ducks coach Mario Cris-
tobal said. “It should burn. It
should hurt a ton. These guys
are competitors and it’s hard
because we’ve taken a lot of
pride in being resilient and
being able to bounce back from
adversity.”
On its only scoring drive
of the fi rst quarter, Utah ran
the ball 11 times on 13 plays
— culminating in a burst up
the middle for 10 yards from
Thomas.
Rising found a rhythm
on Utah’s next scoring drive.
He completed three straight
passes to open the drive and
capped it off by dancing across
the goal line on a 1-yard run
in the second quarter.
His biggest pass in the
fi rst half — a 49-yard catch
and run by Kuithe — set up a
4-yard scoring run by Thomas
that put Utah ahead 21-0 with
27 seconds left in the half.
The Utes forced another
Oregon punt 16 seconds later,
and Covey returned it for the
TD to make it 28-0.
Oregon fi nally got on the
board in the third quarter
when Devon Williams reeled
in a 36-yard catch. Utah ended
any possibility of a comeback
when Thomas sprinted 5
yards for his third touchdown.
Jadon Redding tacked on a 26-
yard fi eld goal to put the Utes
up 38-7 midway through the
fourth quarter.
chains kept it off the board in
the fi rst half and ultimately
crushed the Ducks’ hopes of
going to the College Football
Playoff.
Utah: The Utes did practi-
cally everything right on
offense in the fi rst half. Utah
converted 8 of 10 third downs
and averaged 6.1 yards per
play. As well as the Utes’
offense played, the defense
did an even better job of
grounding the Ducks when it
mattered.
Poll implications
Oregon will take a tumble
in the latest AP Top 25 Poll
and Utah should see a big
jump.
The takeaway
Oregon: Aside from a 50-
yard catch by Kris Hutson, the Up next
Ducks did hardly anything
Oregon: Hosts Oregon
noteworthy against Utah’s
State on Saturday, Nov. 27.
defense until the third quarter.
Utah: Hosts Colorado on
Oregon’s inability to move the Friday, Nov. 26.
Boise State blanks
New Mexico, 37-0
By JASON CHATRAW
Associated Press
beaten two top 25 teams on
the road and are surging.
“The guys have purpose,
BOISE — Khalil Shakir
plain and simple,” Boise State
rolled up 192 all-purpose
yards, George Holani rushed coach Andy Avalos said of
for 114 yards, and Boise State his team’s turnaround. “The
commitment to how we’re go-
returned two blocked punts
for touchdowns as the Bron- ing to show up with a certain
cos defeated New Mexico 37-0 purpose every single day and
how we’re going to work for
Saturday night, Nov. 20.
the team and how we’re going
Boise State (7-4, 5-2)
keeps alive its slim hopes of to do it for the team, that’s the
winning the Mountain Divi- bottom line.
“We’ve been able to de-
sion by virtue of Wyoming’s
velop some more players as a
44-17 upset of Utah State
result of that, and we’ve been
on Saturday. However, the
Broncos will still need some able to develop that depend-
more help in the fi nal week- able depth that we’ve been
wanting for a long time.”
end of the regular season
New Mexico (3-8, 1-6) fi n-
to advance to the Mountain
ished the game with Bryson
West title game.
A month ago, Boise State Carroll — who was a student
team manager just three
was 3-4 and struggling.
Since then, the Broncos have weeks ago — at quarterback
after an injury knocked out
starter Isaiah Chavez. The
Lobos only mustered 101
yards of total offense in suf-
fering its second shutout of
the season.
“Obviously, offensively
we’re kind of a joke right
now,” New Mexico coach
Danny Gonzales said. “You
can’t get a hundred yards of
total offense in a game and
have any chance to win, you
can’t average six points a
game and have any chance
to win, and you can’t get two
punts blocked. That’s terrible.
Offensively, we can’t keep
going down the path we’re
going, so we’re going to have
to fi x it.”
While the Boise State
defense pitched its fi rst
shutout of the season, the
special teams stole the show
on senior night.
On New Mexico’s fi rst
punt of the game from its
own 18, Kekaula Kaniho
smothered punter Aaron
Rodriguez’s kick and Tyreque
Jones scooped up the ball and
returned the ball seven yards
for a touchdown.
With Boise State ahead
10-0 early in the second
quarter, Alexander Teubner
blocked Rodriguez’s punt and
Dylan Herberg snatched the
ball off the turf and rumbled
six yards for the score.
The Broncos’ offense didn’t
get into the end zone until
the fi nal play of the fi rst half
when Shakir raced past the
New Mexico secondary and
hauled in a 56-yard pass from
Hank Bachmeier.
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Sebastian Blanco scores twice,
Timbers beat Minnesota, 3-1
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Se-
bastian Blanco scored the
go-ahead goal and added
an insurance score and the
Portland Timbers elimi-
nated Minnesota United
from the MLS playoffs with
a 3-1 opening-round victory
Sunday, Nov. 21
The fourth-seeded
Timbers advanced to play
the top-seeded Rapids in
Colorado on Thanksgiving
Day.
“We feel relief. But we
cannot relax. We congratu-
late everybody, but now we
need to focus on Colorado,”
Blanco said. “They have
a very, very good team at
home. Very strong. We have
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only four days to prepare for
that game. So we focus now
on the next game.”
Minnesota goalkeeper Ty-
ler Miller was held out of the
match after testing positive
for COVID-19. He announced
his test results on Twitter just
before kickoff.
“Unfortunately I’ve tested
positive for Covid. Gutted to
not be there with the boys in
Portland but all the confi -
dence they can get the job
done, and I’ll be back soon as
possible,” he wrote.
Dayne St. Clair started in
Miller’s place.
Larrys Mabiala also scored
for Portland. Franco Frag-
apane opened the scoring for
Minnesota.
The Timbers set a club
record with 17 wins this
season and won three straight
heading into the postseason.
The fi fth-seeded Loons
needed a tie or win over the
LA Galaxy on Decision Day
to make the playoffs, ulti-
mately earning the spot with
a 3-3 draw.
Minnesota won both
games against the Timbers
this season, extending a
seven-match unbeaten streak
in the series. Portland hadn’t
beaten the Loons since 2018.
United took the early lead
on Fragapane’s left-footed
knock into the corner of the
net. shot from very close range
to the bottom left corner.
The Timbers pulled even
on a header from Mabiala off
a corner in the 43rd minute.
It was his fi rst goal of the
season.
Portland took the lead
just moments into the second
half when Sebastian Blanco
scored from just inside the
box. Blanco had taken a hard
hit at the end of the opening
half and was grasping at his
right side following the goal.
Blanco remained in the
match and scored his second
from distance in the 66th
minute.
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