FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
WOMEN’S
COLLEGE HOOPS
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Beavs, Ducks make
all-Pac-12 team
Pac-12 Conference releases 2021 schedule
Oregon State’s Aleah
Goodman and Taylor
Jones were named to the
Pac-12’s all-conference
first team in women’s bas-
ketball Monday.
In addition, Sasha Go-
forth earned all-freshman
team honors, while sev-
eral other Beavers were
honorable mention selec-
tions on the all-defensive
and freshmen teams.
Goodman, a senior
guard, and Jones, a soph-
omore post, earned first-
team honors for the first
time of their careers.
Goodman led the
Beavers in scoring (16.8
points per game), assists
(5.0) and 3-point shoot-
ing (40-76, .526). It’s the
fourth consecutive year
Goodman has landed on
the all-conference team
in some manner.
Jones led the Pac-12
in rebounds with 8.7 per
game, and she was third
on the team in scoring at
12.1 per game.
For Oregon, Te-Hina
Paopao and Nyara Sabally
were also named to the
all-Pac-12 team.
Paopao, a true fresh-
man point guard, and
Sabally, a redshirt soph-
omore forward who sat
out the past two seasons
due to knee injuries, were
the only first-year players
selected by the Pac-12
coaches for the 15-player
all-conference team.
Oregon senior forward
Erin Boley earned hon-
orable mention honors.
Paopao is also on the
all-freshman team, and
Sabally received hon-
orable mention for the
all-defensive team.
No. 19 Oregon finished
fourth in the regular sea-
son standings and will
play the Oregon State vs.
California winner in the
quarterfinals of the Pac-
12 Tournament on Thurs-
day in Las Vegas.
— Bulletin wire reports
OREGON
FOOTBALL
Cristobal expects
QB competition
EUGENE — Oregon
lost starting quarter-
back Tyler Shough to a
transfer last month, but
with Anthony Brown, Jay
Butterfield and Robby
Ashford returning and a
highly touted freshman
Ty Thompson joining the
mix Mario Cristobal is an-
ticipating a major compe-
tition this offseason.
“Like we view every-
thing else, let it eat,” Cris-
tobal said on Pac-12 ra-
dio and Pac-12 Network
Tuesday. “Certainly very
fired up about the young
guys that we have and
extremely fired up about
Anthony Brown, the way
he came on towards the
end of the year and the
fact that he has a chance
now during spring ball to
be meeting with coach
(Joe) Moorhead an en-
tire spring. Then you look
at our young guys that
have been here. You’ve
got a guy who’s walking
in the door right now, Ty
Thompson, extremely
talented.
“We have a very strong
quarterback room and
we expect it to be as com-
petitive as any of these
other position battles that
are going on.”
Brown was 15 of 23 for
164 yards and two touch-
downs and had seven
carries for 40 yards and
two scores while appear-
ing in the Pac-12 Champi-
onship game against USC
and Fiesta Bowl against
Iowa State.
— The Oregonian
Ducks’ slate features rivalry games at
Washington and at home against Oregon State
BY RYAN THORBURN
The (Eugene) Register-Guard
Oregon football has at least 12
dates officially lined up.
The Pac-12 released its composite
schedule for the 2021 season on Tues-
day with the two-time reigning cham-
pion Ducks opening conference play
on Sept. 25 against Arizona at Autzen
Stadium.
The Ducks’ slate features rivalry
games against Washington (Nov. 6
at Husky Stadium) and Oregon State
(Nov. 27 at Autzen).
The Huskies had to cancel
their 2020 trip to Eugene due to
COVID-19 issues and were also
unavailable for the Pac-12
championship game, which
led to Oregon representing
the North Division.
The Beavers defeated the
Ducks 41-38 at Reser Sta-
dium during the abbreviated
season.
Beavers kick off an all-Saturday football
schedule Sept. 4 at Purdue
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
Oregon State opens the 2021 football
season Sept. 4 at Purdue and closes
a 12-game slate on Nov. 27 at
Oregon, as the Pac-12 released
Inside
its conference schedules Tues-
See full
day.
schedules on
The Beavers play each of
A6
their 12 games this upcoming
season on Saturday. OSU plays
six home and six road games in
2021.
See Oregon / A6
Oregon State plays a traditional
schedule, with its three non-conference
games coming first, followed by Pac-12
play. The Beavers face Hawaii on Sept.
11 and Idaho on Sept. 18 at home.
OSU opens conference play on the
road against USC, a team it hasn’t faced
since 2018.
The Beavers’ conference road games
other than USC are Washington State
(Oct. 9), California (Oct. 30), Colorado
(Nov. 6) and Oregon.
See Oregon State / A6
NBA
Finding
a groove
Portland Trail Blazers’ Robert Covington
is growing his confidence and carving
an important role on the team
BY AARON FENTRESS
The Oregonian
P
ortland Trail Blazers forward
Robert Covington had reason to
smile all day Monday.
It was his mother, Teresa Bryant’s birthday,
and he got to spend time with family.
“I woke up in a great mood today,”
Covington said.
Later he capped off the day by scoring a
season-high 21 points to help lead the Blazers
to a 123-111 win over Charlotte and in the
process snap a four-game losing streak.
“And to top it off with a victory and come out and
play well, I’m just thankful that we were able to do
enough to get a victory tonight,” Covington said.
The Blazers (19-14) might want to find perma-
nent housing in Portland for Covington’s family if
Robert is going to play this well.
Covington has had an uneven season when it
comes to his shooting. Some nights he is woefully
bad. But then there are nights like Monday when his
shot is on. He made 8 of 11 field goal attempts and
5 of 7 threes on a night when the Blazers set a fran-
chise record with 24 made threes on 46 attempts.
While consistency on offense has eluded Coving-
ton, he usually makes his presence felt on defense.
On nights when he excels at both ends of the floor,
the Blazers are pretty difficult to defeat. Covington
Steve Dykes/AP
Portland Trail Blazers forward Robert Covington, left, drives to the basket on Charlotte Hornets forward Cody Mar-
tin, right, during a game in Portland on Monday night. The Blazers won 123-111.
“I’ve got to keep building. I’ve got to kind of keep
putting these types of games together. I can’t
have the drop offs.”
— Robert Covington
on Monday also had 10 rebounds, two assists, two
steals and two blocked shots.
“Robert was player of the game,” Blazers coach
Terry Stotts said. “He did a little bit of everything. …
I’m pretty sure this was his best game as a Blazer. He
was just terrific.”
Covington agreed.
“Overall, yeah,” he said. “But I’ve got to keep
building. I’ve got to kind of keep putting these types
of games together. I can’t have the drop offs.”
Covington said he had been working on gaining
and maintaining a rhythm and a routine. Entering
Monday, he was shooting a career-low 37.3% from
the field while making 33.8% of his threes.
He’s had some hot stretches this season. In fact,
from Feb. 12 through Feb. 22, Covington made 13
of 24 threes (54.2%). Then he went 0 of 9 from three
and 1 of 13 overall during losses at Denver and the
Los Angeles last week. Earlier this season, Coving-
ton had a stretch where he went 4 of 26 on threes.
Seeing familiar faces seemed to certainly help
Covington on Monday. As did making shots early.
Covington made 4 of 4 threes in the first half and
had 16 points at halftime.
See Covington / A6
MLB
A feel-good start to a feel-good season
BY TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Columnist
Trey Mancini stepped up to
the plate for the first time since
discovering a cancer that could
have killed him.
Tommy Pham got a couple
of at-bats in after a stabbing
that nearly did kill him.
Feel-good stories weren’t
hard to find as major league
spring training games opened
in Arizona and Florida. Manci-
ni’s comeback after a year off to
treat his colon cancer left some
of us on the verge of tears,
while Pham’s return to the Pa-
dres’ lineup after being stabbed
outside a strip club was reason
for a smile.
And, as always, more players
were feeling better about their
bank accounts, including third
baseman Hunter Dozier, who
agreed to a $25 million, four-
year contract with the Royals
just as the exhibition games
began.
The best feeling of all? That
would be looking into the
stands in both states and seeing
fans there to watch the games.
Actual fans, to be clear, not
the cardboard variety that were
cute to begin with but now
thankfully need to find new
homes in closets across the
country. There weren’t a ton
of fans because of coronavi-
rus restrictions, but there were
enough to make a difference
and give us hope that this year
will be very different from the
last.
“I hit a ground ball but just
hearing the fans kind of spark
up,” Yankees slugger Aaron
Judge said.
“You hear that instant crowd
reaction. Kind of had little but-
terflies getting back to your
first at-bat.”
That was pretty much the
reaction from players around
both the Cactus and Grapefruit
leagues.
See MLB / A7
Brynn Anderson/AP
Baseball fans watch the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox play
during a spring training game on Monday in Fort Myers, Florida.