A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
NFC CHAMPIONSHIP | TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS 31, GREEN BAY PACKERS 26
ROAD WARRIORS
Tampa Ba
Bay Buccaneers
quarterback Tom Brady
reacts after winning the
NFC championship on
Sunday. Brady passed
for 280 yards, three
touchdowns and three
interceptions in Green
Bay, Wisconsin.
Matt Ludtke/AP
Brady’s bunch heading home for Super Bowl;
10th overall for the 43-year-old quarterback
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press
G
REEN BAY, Wis. — Tom
Brady, along with the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers’
road magic, has them heading
home to the Super Bowl, the first
team to play in one on their home
field.
Brady owns six Super Bowl
rings with New England and now
heads to his 10th NFL champi-
onship game with his new team.
With help from a stifling pass
rush and a curious late call on
fourth-and-goal by the Packers,
Brady and the Bucs beat top-
seeded Green Bay 31-26 for the
NFC title Sunday.
“It’s great to get another road
win, and now we got a home
game,” said Brady, who went 20 of
36 for 280 yards with three touch-
downs. “Who’d ever thought a
home Super Bowl for us? But we
did it.”
The Bucs (14-5) earned their
franchise-record eighth consecu-
tive road victory to reach the Su-
per Bowl for the first time since
their 2002 championship season.
They were helped by a strange
decision by Packers coach Matt
LaFleur with just over two min-
utes remaining and down by eight
points. On fourth-and-goal, he
elected to kick a field goal to get
within five. Tampa Bay then ran
out the clock on the Packers (14-
4).
The Bucs will face the defend-
ing Super Bowl champion Kansas
City Chiefs at Tampa’s Raymond
James Stadium on Feb. 7.
“We’re coming home,” said
Bucs coach Bruce Arians, who
began his coaching career in 1975
at Texas Tech and will make his
first trip to the Super Bowl as a
head coach. “We’re coming home
to win.”
Green Bay trailed 31-23 and
had first-and-goal from the 8
in the last few minutes. But af-
ter Aaron Rodgers threw three
straight incompletions, the Pack-
ers settled for Mason Crosby’s 26-
yard field goal with 2:05 left.
The Packers had all three tim-
eouts left and were hoping their
defense could force a punt. The
Bucs foiled that plan, draining the
rest of the clock, helped by a pass
interference penalty on Kevin
King.
Led by Shaquil Barrett and Ja-
son Pierre-Paul combining for
five sacks, Tampa Bay snapped
Green Bay’s seven-game winning
streak. The Packers lost in the
NFC championship game for the
fourth time in the last seven sea-
sons. Green Bay hasn’t reached
the Super Bowl since its 2010
championship season.
See NFC / A6
AFC | KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 38, BUFFALO BILLS 24
Jeff Roberson/AP
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates after throwing a
5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Travis Kelce against the Buffalo Bills in the
AFC championship game on Sunday in Kansas City, Missouri.
Reigning champion Chiefs
dump the Bills in AFC title
BY DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
K
ANSAS CITY, Mo. — It
took the Kansas City Chiefs
five frustrating decades to
make their second Super Bowl ap-
pearance.
Now, the defending champs
are headed there for the second
straight year.
Showing no lingering effects
from his concussion, Patrick Ma-
homes sliced up Buffalo’s second-
ary with ruthless efficiency Sunday
night, helping the Chiefs roll to a
38-24 victory over Josh Allen and
the Bills in the AFC championship
game.
The reigning Super Bowl MVP
finished with 325 yards passing
and three touchdowns, most of it
to favorite targets Travis Kelce and
Tyreek Hill, who complemented
their star quarterback with a re-
cord-setting night of their own.
See AFC / A6
LATE SATURDAY: PAC-12 BASKETBALL | OREGON STATE 75, NO. 21 OREGON 64
Thompson, Alatishe help Beavs topple rival Ducks
Associated Press
Andy Nelson/AP
Oregon State guard Ethan Thompson brings the ball up the floor while
being guarded by Oregon guard Amauri Hardy on Saturday in Eugene.
EUGENE — Ethan Thomp-
son scored 19 points and
Warith Alatishe had 14 points
and 16 rebounds as Oregon
State beat No. 21 Oregon 75-
64 on Saturday night.
Jarod Lucas added 13 points
and the Beavers (8-5, 4-3 Pac-
12) had a 42-23 rebounding
edge in their third straight vic-
tory.
Thompson, a senior guard,
joined Gary Payton as the
only players in school history
with at least 1,400 points and
400 assists. He was 3 for 11
from the field, but made 12 of
14 free throws and scored 14
points in the second half.
“They were pressing a lot so
it freed up some looks if I was
able to get down the court,”
Thompson said. “I might have
been forcing too much early,
but in the second half I let the
game come to me. Guys were
making plays for me when I
was open.”
Eugene Omoruyi had 15
points and nine rebounds for
Oregon (9-3, 4-2), playing
without four projected starters.
Freshman guard Jalen Terry
scored 13 points, and Eric Wil-
liams Jr. added 11.
“We got killed on the
boards, that was by far the
biggest factor,” Oregon coach
Dana Altman said. “Our phys-
icality on the boards was just
awful. We had a chance from
the free throw line to stay close
and we went 14 for 23 and
they went 22 for 24.”
The Beavers broke a 34-all
tie early in the second half
with eight straight points and
never trailed the rest of the
way.
“We got key stops and made
stops, which is something we
didn’t do early in the season,”
Oregon State coach Wayne
Tinkle said. “We are certainly
making progress.”
See Beavs / A6
Prince, Giomi lead
No. 13 Oregon
Sedona Prince scored
16 points and blocked
five shots, Lydia Giomi
added a double-double
off the bench and No. 13
Oregon defeated Wash-
ington 69-52 on Sunday.
Giomi had 11 points
and 10 rebounds and fel-
low reserve Sydney Par-
rish added 12 points for
the short-handed Ducks
(11-3, 9-3 Pac-12 Confer-
ence), who were without
starters Nyara Sabally and
Erin Boley, who had made
84 consecutive starts.
Angela Dugalic scored
12 points on 5-of-7 shoot-
ing with eight rebounds
in her first career start.
Te-Hina Paopao scored 10
with six assists and three
steals.
Haley Van Dyke scored
13 to lead the Huskies (4-
5, 1-5). UW has lost four
straight, the first one to
the Ducks 73-49 in Seat-
tle on Dec. 19. Since then
they have had six games
postponed, including the
last five. Tameiya Sadler
and Darcy Rees both
scored 10.
Parish had a pair of
3-pointers and Prince
scored twice in a
first-quarter 12-0 run to
get the Ducks started.
They got the lead to 26-
12 on a Giomi basket in
the middle of the second
quarter before the Hus-
kies had an 11-2 run. It
was 32-23 at the half.
Oregon scored the
first four points of the
third quarter to put the
lead in double figures
for good, stretching it as
high as 20 and to 22 mid-
way through the fourth
quarter.
The usually high-pow-
ered Ducks continued to
win with defense, holding
their 10th opponent to
fewer than 60 points.
Oregon goes to Utah
on Friday. The Huskies
have a makeup game
with Oregon State on
Tuesday.
Oregon St. falls to
Washington St.
It was a loss, confirmed
by the scoreboard Sun-
day afternoon in Gill Col-
iseum as Oregon State
dropped a 77-75 double
overtime decision to
Washington State.
But the outcome was
about the only negative
in women’s basketball
coach Scott Rueck’s mind.
Within the first two
sentences of his post-
game press conference,
Rueck called the perfor-
mance a step in the right
direction.
“This was so fun, even
though it turned into
a loss,” Rueck said. “The
wins are coming.”
Make no mistake, the
wins must come quickly
if Oregon State is to make
a run at the NCAA tour-
nament. The Beavers
lost their fifth consecu-
tive game and fell to 3-5
overall. But OSU is a team
in a bit of a rebuild after
losing a key group of se-
niors and transfer guard
from last season. The Bea-
vers count on a handful
of players among their
top nine with little to no
experience at the Pac-12
level.
The Beavers held
Washington State (8-3,
6-3) to 34.6% shooting
(28 of 81), battled back
from several second-half
deficits to force overtime.
OSU had a chance with
the final possession in
both overtimes to win
the game. The Beavers
had a career-high scor-
ing performance from
Aleah Goodman of 33
points and received a
double-double from Tay-
lor Jones (16 points, 14
rebounds).
— Bulletin wire reports