FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NBA
Blazers hold on
to top Wizards
WASHINGTON — Da-
mian Lillard scored 32
points, Gary Trent Jr.
added 26 while hitting
seven 3-pointers and the
short-handed Portland
Trail Blazers held on for a
132-121 victory over the
Washington Wizards on
Tuesday night.
Enes Kanter had 14
points and 15 rebounds
for Portland, which im-
proved to 2-2 on its six-
game road trip.
Carmelo Anthony had
21 points off the bench
and Robert Covington
added 19 for the Blazers,
who have been with-
out starters C.J. McCol-
lum (foot), Jusuf Nurkic
(wrist) and Derrick Jones
Jr. (foot) for at least three
games each.
Interim starter Nassir
Little was also out Tues-
day with a sprained left
knee.
Russell Westbrook had
a triple-double with 17
points, 12 rebounds and
10 assists for Washing-
ton, the only NBA team
without five victories this
season.
Bradley Beal scored 37
points and Rui Hachimura
added 24 for the Wizards,
who were attempting to
record consecutive wins
for just the second time.
But the Blazers leaped
to an early 26-7 lead
with an 18-0 run, even
as Lillard started slowly.
Trent made two 3-point-
ers during the spurt, and
Hood and Covington
each added one.
Lillard finally scored his
first points on a baseline
jumper with 3:45 during
a first quarter that ended
with Portland holding a
40-23 advantage.
PAC-12 WOMEN9S BASKETBALL
For Beavers, fans a welcome sight at Utah
BY STEVE GRESS
Corvallis Gazette-Times
There was a bit of a sur-
prise awaiting the Oregon
State women’s basketball team
on Sunday when the players
learned that some of their fam-
ilies were on hand to watch
them play for the first time this
season.
That’s because a handful
of fans were allowed to be in
attendance when Utah and
Oregon State squared off in the
Huntsman Center in Salt Lake
City.
And while they weren’t sit-
ting behind the benches, but
rather in the upper deck of the
arena, it was still a strange oc-
currence at first.
“It was honestly, like, really
weird, like I wasn’t used to it
anymore which is weird to say
that it felt weird,” said Oregon
State freshman Sasha Goforth,
who celebrated her birthday by
scoring 16 points and grabbing
10 rebounds for her first dou-
ble-double as a Beaver in an
84-74 win.
“But then it made me so
happy. I forgot how it felt to,
like, have other people behind
you, other than just your team
and the bench, which is awe-
some. But just other people
that are excited for you and ex-
cited to be there watching you,
so it was really great.”
Coach Scott Rueck had an
old friend on hand as well. So
he could understand how ex-
cited those players were who
had family at the game. And
how excited the parents were
to see their daughters play, if
just for a game.
“I was just so excited that
some of them got to come,” he
said. “I mean that has been one
of the most unique, difficult
things for all of us is not having
people that have been with us
our whole lives as we’ve com-
peted — coaches and players.”
The ability for a few people
to be in attendance brought up
an interesting question: If Utah
can make it work, why not
other places?
It made Rueck wonder.
“They’re sitting miles from
us way up there, all our arenas
are big, why can’t we let fam-
ilies come,” he said. “I don’t
understand it, personally,
but it seems like there’s a way
to make it happen if people
would let us. So it was really,
obviously, exciting to get to see
them and have them there. I
know it meant a lot to our kids
to have their parents come.”
See Beavers / A6
Courtesy Bryan Byerly
Oregon State’s Sasha Goforth during a game against Utah on Sunday
in Salt Lake City, Utah. Goforth had a double-double with 16 points
and 10 rebounds in the Beavers’ 84-74 victory.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Defensive
autonomy
Oregon’s culture under Mario Cristobal
attracted Tim DeRuyter to join Ducks
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
— Associated Press
EUGENE —
ALPINE SKIING
T
Shiffrin to return
to speed events
Mikaela Shiffrin’s long-
awaited return to speed
skiing will come at the
world championships
starting next week.
The American standout
announced Tuesday that
she plans to enter four
events at the worlds in
Cortina d’Ampezzo: com-
bined, super-G, giant sla-
lom and slalom.
It’s the biggest pro-
gram that Shiffrin has ever
embarked on at a major
championship — worlds
or Olympics.
Before her father died
last year, Shiffrin had ex-
panded from her favored
technical disciplines of
slalom and giant slalom to
also race — and excel in
— the speed disciplines of
super-G and downhill. So
much so that she won the
gold medal in the super-G
at the last worlds in Are,
Sweden, two years ago.
Since her extended
break and her return to
the World Cup circuit in
November, though, Shif-
frin has not entered a sin-
gle speed race. But she has
spent several days training
super-G this week.
“I feel comfortable on
the skis and it’s super fun,
so I’m really going into the
speed section of world
champs with the intention
almost trying to take it as
an opportunity for train-
ing,” Shiffrin said.
Still, Shiffrin acknowl-
edged that she probably
won’t be the favorite for
the super-G, with that
status belonging to Lara
Gut-Behrami, the Swiss
racer who has won four
straight super-Gs this
season.
After all, Shiffrin has not
raced on the long boards
since winning a super-G
in Bansko, Bulgaria, more
than a year ago.
— Associated Press
im DeRuyter has been a defensive
coordinator or head coach for the last 19
seasons, but for the first time in five years
he’ll have autonomy.
Oregon’s new defensive coordinator, DeRuyter
was officially introduced on Monday, 10 days after
he was hired away from Pac-12 North foe Cal,
where he spent the last four seasons.
Nati Harnik/AP file
Then Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter watches players warm up for an NCAA college football game against Ne-
braska in 2016. DeRuyter was officially introduced as Oregon’s new defensive coordinator this week.
DeRutyer did for the
Bears what he’s done at
numerous stops in his ca-
reer, performing a mas-
sive statistical turnaround
upon his arrival and in
many ways, overachieved
in results based on the
caliber of talent he inher-
ited thanks to player de-
velopment, scheme and
play-calling. But those last
two factors were not en-
tirely under DeRuyter’s
control at Cal, where Justin
Wilcox has purview over
the defense and Peter Sir-
mon, a former play-call-
ing defensive coordinator,
has been involved over the
past three seasons.
There won’t be shared
responsibilities or con-
structs for DeRuyter to
work within in terms of
defensive game-planning
at Oregon.
See DeRuyter / A7
GOLF
Reed’s reputation from Bahamas the ultimate penalty
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
The violation was so egre-
gious that Rickie Fowler, glanc-
ing at the replay on television,
quickly raised his eyebrows
and said: “Whoa! What was
THAT?”
It was Patrick Reed.
This was just over a year ago
in the Bahamas, the day Reed
infamously used the back of his
wedge to scoop away sand —
twice — from behind his golf
ball in a waste bunker, improv-
ing his line of play. Only when
he was shown video evidence
did Reed accept the two-shot
penalty, but not before suggest-
ing the camera angle made it
look worse than it was.
The penalty, as it turns out,
was worth more than two
shots.
There is no greater punish-
ment in golf than being stuck
with a reputation for cheating.
Reed was always going to
have a hard time living down
that incident.
It followed him to Australia,
where the fans were so abusive
his caddie got into it with a
spectator and was replaced for
the final day of the Presidents
Cup. It stayed with him in the
chill environment of Kapa-
lua, where a spectator yelled
“CHEATER!” after Reed hit a
putt in a playoff. A few weeks
later in San Diego, Reed asked
police to remove hecklers.
The verbal abuse was si-
lenced by golf not having fans
because of the pandemic.
And then more outrage in-
volving Reed, fueled mightily
by social media, arrived during
an otherwise idyllic Saturday
afternoon at Torrey Pines.
Moving past this one will be
almost impossible.
As far as the PGA Tour is
concerned, Reed did nothing
wrong on the 10th hole of the
third round at the Farmers In-
surance Open. And according
to the Rules of Golf, which re-
lies on facts over reputation,
the tour was right.
“He operated the way the
rules permit him to operate,”
said John Mutch, the tour’s se-
nior tournament director.
This was about optics.
Mostly, it was about Reed.
He pulled his approach from
a fairway bunker into thick
grass left of the 10th green.
Approaching where a volun-
teer had marked the spot with
a tiny flag, Reed asked if the
ball bounced. “No, I didn’t see
it bounce,” the volunteered re-
plied.
He turned to his playing
partners, PGA Tour rookie
Will Gordon and second-year
player Robby Shelton, and
told them, “They said it didn’t
bounce,” and that he would
check for an embedded lie.
Crouching over, he marked the
spot with a tee, put the ball in
the palm of his hand and kept
probing the turf for about 5
seconds when he called for an
official. And then he poked
around for another five sec-
onds.
“I believe it broke ground,
but I’m going to let you make
that call,” Reed told Brad Fabel,
the rules official.
Fabel didn’t immediately
know what he was talking
about because Reed had placed
the ball about 8 feet away. Reed
showed him where the ball
was, Fabel poked around and
agreed there was a “lip,” mean-
ing the ball had broken the
plane of the soil.
Free drop.
See Golf / A6