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FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT A5 S PORTS THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 bendbulletin.com/sports WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Arizona rolls past Oregon, 79-59 Cate Reese scored 25 points and No. 10 Ari- zona completed a season sweep of 11th-ranked Or- egon with a 79-59 win on Monday. Reese, a 6-foot-2 ju- nior who entered the game averaging 11.3 points, was 11 for 14 from the field while making all three of her 3-point attempts. Sam Thomas scored 14 points and Trinity Baptiste and Aari McDonald each added 13 points as the Wildcats shot 50.8% from the field. Arizona, which had been off for 17 days with four games post- poned because of COVID-19, won consec- utive games against the Ducks for the first time since 2011. Coach Adia Barnes dropped her first 10 games against Ore- gon before this season’s sweep, which kept the Wildcats (12-2, 10-2) in second place in the con- ference. Nyara Sabally scored 17 points to lead the Ducks (12-4, 9-4), who dropped to fourth in the Pac-12. Sedona Prince scored 10 points while Taylor Mikesell and Te- Hina Paopao each had nine points. Arizona led 33-32 at halftime before outscor- ing the Ducks 27-14 in the third quarter. The Wildcats opened the second half with a 9-2 run to go ahead 42-34 on a pair of free throws by Thomas. The Wildcats scored 13 straight points before Paopao made a 3-pointer to get the Ducks within 60-46 enter- ing the final period. Reese and Thomas combined to score the first eight points of the game for Arizona. Central Oregon | prep sports OSAA approves March 1 start Although football, volleyball still have hurdles to clear BY BRIAN RATHBONE The Bulletin I n one way or another, high school sports are set to return to competition starting March 1. The executive board of the Oregon School Activities Association approved the start of soccer, cross-country and (partly) volleyball during a Monday Zoom meeting, while football players are still waiting for further guidelines from the Oregon Health Authority to determine if they can play games this winter and spring. “That was a priority for the board,” Peter Weber, executive director of the OSAA, told The Bulletin Monday afternoon. “Let those who can go, go. And those who can’t, pro- vide alternative options.” Those who can: Soccer and cross-country are allowed to start practicing Feb. 22, while questions remain about what the postseason will entail. Those questions will likely have more clarity following a Feb. 17 OSAA exec- utive board meeting. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin ABOVE: The Bend High School football team practices Monday. BELOW: Bend High School assistant football coach Kevin Cooper talks to the team during practice Monday. See OSAA / A7 —Associated Press MEN’S BASKETBALL Buffs defeat cold Beavers, 78-49 Jeriah Horne scored 16 points, Tristan da Silva added a career-high 15, and they combined to make 12 of 14 shots in Colorado’s 78-49 victory over cold-shooting Or- egon State on Monday night. Colorado (15-5, 9-4) moved within one game of co-leaders UCLA and No. 20 USC at 9-2 in con- ference play. It matches Colorado’s best 13-game conference record in the Pac-12 era, joining the 2011-12 and 2019-20 teams. Colorado opened the second half on a 13-2 run to build a 53-29 lead as Oregon State missed its first six shots. The Beavers went nearly six minutes without a made field goal late in the second half, trailing by as many as 31 points during the drought. Dallas Walton had 12 points and seven re- bounds for Colorado. McKinley Wright IV added six points and four as- sists. Colorado shot 59.3% from the field (16 of 27) in the first half to help build a 40-27 lead at the break. Ethan Thompson led Oregon State (10-8, 6-6) with 10 points. The Beavers shot 32.7% and turned it over 20 times. It was the first of six road games, with three at home, to conclude the regular season for Oregon State. —Associated Press NFL| 2021 SEASON AUSTRALIAN OPEN Bucs hope to keep core together to chase another Super Bowl Only Venus gets to decide when she leaves tennis BY FRED GOODALL Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady’s com- ing back. So is Bruce Arians. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are al- ready thinking about what it’ll take to repeat as Super Bowl champions. The challenge begins with trying to keep some key components together for next season. Brady threw three touchdowns passes on the way to claiming a re- cord seventh NFL title with a 31-9 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs — two to Rob Gronkowski and one to An- tonio Brown, both of whom played on one-year deals after being lured to Tampa Bay by the 43-year-old quar- terback. Leonard Fournette ran for the team’s other TD. He, too, joined the Bucs on a one-year contract after Brady reached out to the talented running back after he was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars late in training camp. If Brady, Arians and general man- ager Jason Licht have their way, Gronkowski, Brown and Fournette won’t wind up being one-season rentals. The team is also interested in sign- ing linebacker Shaquil Barrett and receiver Chris Godwin to long-term deals. Defensive starters Lavonte Da- vid, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamu- kong Suh can become free agents, BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer Arians also expressed the belief that the Bucs, who rode Brady and a dynamic young defense on an im- pressive playoff surge that culmi- nated with Tampa Bay becoming the first team to appear in a Super Bowl in its own stadium, can be even bet- ter next year. He and Brady reiterated how dif- ficult it was to navigate this season, the quarterback’s first in Tampa Bay after 20 years in New England, amid COVID-19 protocols that eliminated offseason workouts and preseason games. The questions about Venus Williams’ fu- ture have been accumulating for a while now, some subtle, some less so. About whether she’ll be back at a particu- lar event. About whether she’ll stick around for the following season. About her passion for tennis. About her motivation at age 40. About other players who recently retired or were about to retire. The bottom line, essentially, was this: As Williams accrued more and more early ex- its at Grand Slam tournaments — and, well, other tournaments, too — how much longer would she keep playing professional tennis? But there is another bottom line and it is this: It’s really up to just one person to de- cide why and how long Williams will keep going. Williams, of course. And after going 0-3 at the sport’s ma- jor championships in 2020, and 1-8 over- all during the pandemic-shortened season, Williams began the 2021 Grand Slam sea- son with the best sort of answer to all of those questions. She won. Starting her 21st Australian Open and professional-era record 88th appearance at all Slams, Williams beat Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-2 on Monday. That set up a second-round meeting Wednesday with Sara Errani, a 33-year-old from Italy who was a French Open runner-up and U.S. Open semifinalist in 2012 and is now ranked 134th. See Bucs / A7 See Venus / A7 Ben Liebenberg/AP Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians holds the Vince Lombardi trophy following Super Bowl 55 on Sunday in Tampa, Florida. Tampa Bay won 31-9. although there’s been no indication any is eager to leave. “I’m very very confident,” Arians said Monday of keeping the bulk of the roster together for next season. “I have all the trust in the world in Jason and what he will do. There will be dollars involved, but I think this group is so so close that sometimes dollars don’t matter. But we’re going to do everything we can to get the dollars right, too.” The Bucs likely have about $38 million in salary cap space, though the 2021 cap number has not been set yet.