INSIDE: CLASSIFIEDS, MARKET RECAP & WEATHER
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
MEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
PREP SPORTS
Beavers rally for
win over Cardinal
Busy 1st week for Central Oregon high school sports
STANFORD, Calif. —
Jarod Lucas scored a ca-
reer-high 26 points to
lead Oregon State to a 73-
62 victory over Stanford
on Saturday.
The Beavers (13-11, 9-9
Pac-12) took the lead for
good with about 14 min-
utes to play and led 65-
54 with 3:11 remaining
when Lucas hit a deep
3-pointer from the center
of the arc.
Oregon State swept
both Stanford and Cali-
fornia on the road for the
first time since the 2008-
09 season, while the Car-
dinal (14-11, 10-9) had
not lost to Oregon State
and Oregon at home in
the same season since
1985-86.
Ethan Thompson had
13 points for the Beavers.
Warith Alatishe added
10 points and eight re-
bounds.
Ziaire Williams scored
14 points off the bench
to lead Stanford. Lukas
Kisunas matched his ca-
reer best with 12 points
and Spencer Jones had
10. The Cardinal had a
10-point lead in the first
half, but the Beavers
closed on a 14-5 run to
cut the deficit to 34-33 at
the break.
Oscar da Silva, the
Cardinal’s leading scorer
and rebounder, missed
his second straight game
due to a lower extremity
injury.
Oregon State, which
has won three of its last
four games, plays at
Utah on Wednesday and
ends its regular season at
home against Oregon on
March 7.
The Cardinal will look
to end a three-game los-
ing skid when they face
No. 19 Southern Califor-
nia on Wednesday to end
their regular season.
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
T
he streak of 353 days without
high school sports in Oregon will
be snapped on Monday, when
high school athletes return to competi-
tion for the first time since the start of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the calendar reads March,
it is the traditional fall sports that are
kicking off the start of their six-week
seasons.
The first Central Oregon teams to
venture into the return Monday include
La Pine girls soccer, which hosts Cre-
swell, and Madras boys soccer, which
welcomes Molalla.
Due to the condensed seasons and
cal contests, five of them are Central
different guidelines and restrictions in
Oregon teams against Central Oregon
school districts and counties around the teams. In volleyball, Mountain View
state, team schedules are much
hosts Summit, Sisters hosts Bend
more regional compared with
High and Crook County
travels to Redmond. On
years past. And without a
Inside
the soccer field, the Red-
traditional postseason,
See the prep
mond boys play host to
leagues and conferences
sports events
Mountain View while the
are not operating as they
schedule in
Redmond girls host Bend
typically would. For ex-
Scoreboard,
High. Only La Pine volley-
ample, Mountain Valley
B2
ball (hosts Harrisburg) and
Conference teams, which
Madras girls soccer (at Mo-
include Salem and Bend
lalla) play against non-Central
schools, will not face one another
Oregon Schools.
in a regular capacity in 2021.
Wednesday brings a doubleheader
On Tuesday the hyper-local sched-
for Central Cristian volleyball against
ules begin in earnest. Of the seven lo-
Hosanna-Triad and Rogue Valley
Adventist; La Pine boys soccer hosts
Creswell and Madras girls soccer
plays Molalla for the second day in a
row. Wednesday is also the first area
cross-country meet with Madras, Cul-
ver and Trinity Luther competing in the
Madras XC Triangular at Juniper Hills
Park.
By Thursday, the prep sports sea-
son will be in full swing. While specta-
tors are still prohibited from attending
games, there will be streaming available
on the National Federation of High
School Sports Network (www.nfhsnet-
work.com).
SOCIAL JUSTICE
COMMENTARY
PREP SPORTS
Names of
Black athletes
need to adorn
stadiums
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Columnist
Together again
— Associated Press
L.J. Figueroa leads
Oregon past Cal
BERKELEY, Calif. — L.J.
Figueroa had 20 points,
a career-high 14 re-
bounds and five steals,
Eugene Omoruyi scored
21 points and Oregon
beat California 74-63 on
Saturday.
Oregon scored the first
four points of the game
and led the rest of the
way. Figueroa, Omoruyi
and Chris Duarte com-
bined for 38 second-half
points, while Oregon held
Cal to 36. Figueroa had
15 points after the break,
Duarte added 13 and
Omoruyi 10 as Oregon
shot 56%.
Figueroa scored the
final seven points of a
game-changing 11-0 run
for a 63-45 lead with 7:34
left. Omoruyi had the
other four points — all
from the line.
Duarte finished with
17 points for Oregon (16-
5, 11-4 Pac-12), which
only got four points from
its bench. Oregon turned
11 Cal turnovers into 27
points, including 18 in the
second half.
The Ducks have won
seven of their last eight
games with a 72-58 loss
to No. 19 USC.
Ryan Betley scored 13
points, and Andre Kelly
and Matt Bradley each
added 12 for Cal (8-19,
3-17), which lost its fourth
straight game to close its
regular season. Jarred Hy-
der had 10 points.
Oregon is scheduled
to play three games next
week while Cal is off. The
Ducks host Arizona on
Monday and UCLA on
Wednesday before head-
ing to Corvallis to play
Oregon State on March 7.
— Associated Press
See Prep sports / B3
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin file photos
Runners make their way through the course while competing in the Oxford Classic cross-country race in Bend’s Drake Park in 2019.
High school cross-country season finally gets underway in Central Oregon
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
P
Players set for
puck drop at
Madison
Square Garden
other sport, running
allows for athletes to
train on their own. But there is
something special, something
human, about being part of a team.
Cross-country teams across
BY JOHN WAWROW
AP Hockey Writer
Central Oregon are officially back
Summit is hosting the Central Oregon
XC Rust Buster Relays on Saturday.
The meet will include Bend, Moun-
tain View, Redmond, and several other
smaller Central Oregon cross-country
teams.
Storm coach Kari Strang said it is
designed as a fun, low-key event with
two-person relays, each runner complet-
ing a different series of distance loops.
“It’s a way for them to get the nerves
out, because it has been, for so many of
them, almost a year or longer since they
truly competed,” Strang said. “We plan
to make it as fun and celebratory as pos-
sible. The rest of the meets will be regu-
lar 5K distance.”
Summit has won 17 state champi-
onships since 2008 and the Storm girls
have claimed a record 12 straight state
titles, including a national championship
in 2018 at the Nike Cross Nationals.
Hilary Knight has played
in rinks large and small
spanning the globe during
her 14 years representing
USA Hockey.
That doesn’t prevent the
three-time Olympian from
getting chills in anticipation
of hitting the ice for the first
time at Madison Square
Garden on Sunday for the
opening stop of the Pro-
fessional Women’s Hockey
Players’ Association Dream
Gap Tour’s second season.
“I’m a little nervous to be
honest. It’s been so long,”
Knight said, noting it’s been
nearly a year since she and
her teammates played in a
competitive setting as a re-
sult of the coronavirus pan-
demic. “And then to under-
pin it by, oh, by the way, you
guys are playing at the Gar-
den. There’s a lot of things to
be happy and excited about.”
The matchup between
the PWHPA’s two hubs of
New Hampshire and Min-
nesota will be the first pro-
fessional women’s hockey
game played at MSG.
See Cross-country / B3
See Hockey / B3
together practicing, preparing for
a season that will have multi-team
meets, but is unlikely to have district
For now, runners and coaches will
take what they can get.
“It’s so fun to have the kids out there,”
said Bend High cross-country coach
Lisa Nye.
“I’m really impressed with how re-
spectful they’ve been with safety proto-
cols and adhering to those. It just feels
really good to have your team together
outside running. As long as we can keep
safety number one, from there, we all
just have a new appreciation of being
together. The last year has certainly …
there’s a lot to process. It’s been a chal-
lenging time.”
Nye said the focus for this cross-coun-
try season — which started with official
practices Monday and will run through
early April along with football, soccer
and volleyball — is allowing the athletes
to run safely with their friends.
“I don’t think this is the time right
now to put a ton of pressure on kids for
See Stadiums / B3
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
erhaps more than any
meets and will not have a state meet.
As Black History Month
comes to a close, there have
been myriad tributes to the
accomplishments of Afri-
can Americans in sports
arenas across the land.
That’s not nearly enough.
Not after the racial awak-
ening this country went
through last summer. Not
when major college athletic
facilities are still named al-
most exclusively for whites,
ignoring the rich history of
African Americans in the
two biggest sports, football
and basketball.
Why isn’t the basketball
arena at UCLA known as
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Pa-
vilion? Why doesn’t Geor-
gia’s football stadium honor
Herschel Walker? Shouldn’t
Jim Brown’s name be on the
dome at Syracuse?
Runners fill the course during the Oxford Classic cross-country race in Bend’s Drake Park in
2019.
“It’s so fun to have the kids out
there. I’m really impressed with how
respectful they’ve been with safety
protocols and adhering to those. It
just feels really good to have your
team together outside running. As
long as we can keep safety number
one.”
— Lisa Nye, Bend High cross-country coach
ultra-competitive experience, because
there are so many other factors going
on in their lives, all our lives,” Nye said.
“We’re not operating on 100%. I cer-
tainly have a greater appreciation for
being in-person versus not. I think that
longing of being with your people is a
very human trait.”