A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
PAC-12 MEN’S BASKETBALL
OREGON 80, OREGON STATE 67
Oregon clinches title; career high for Richardson
Associated Press
Will Richardson scored a career-high 22
points and Oregon made a season-high 15
3-pointers in beating Oregon State 80-67 on
Sunday night to finish as the Pac-12 Confer-
ence’s regular season champion for the sec-
ond straight year.
Oregon has won five straight in just a span
of 11 days and is 10-2 since Feb. 4.
Richardson finished with career-high six-
made 3s and only missed once from beyond
the arc. As a team, it was the most made 3s
by a Ducks unit since 2017 when they went
11 for 24. Oregon finished 15-for-23 (65.2%)
from deep.
Eugene Omoruyi scored 18 points for Or-
egon, Eric Williams Jr. 14 and Chris Duarte
and LJ Figueroa each scored 10.
Oregon (19-5, 14-4) built a 26-10 lead and
never trailed. They led by double figures for
most of the remainder.
Ethan Thompson scored 16 points
for Oregon State (14-12, 10-10), Warith
Alatishe 14, Jarod Lucas 12 and Roman
Silva 10.
Oregon State faces UCLA on Thursday in
the post-season conference tournament in
Las Vegas.
Oregon is the tournament’s top seed. On
Thursday it will face the winner of Wednes-
day’s matchup between Arizona State and
Washington State.
PGA
NBA All-Stars
DeChambeau
outlasts Westwood
STILL
PERFECT
Team LeBron wins All-Star Game 170-150
The long ball helped
Bryson DeChambeau
outlast Lee Westwood on
Sunday to win the Arnold
Palmer Invitational, only
the key shots were as
much with his putter as
his driver.
DeChambeau holed a
40-foot birdie putt on the
front nine and a 50-foot
par putt early on the back
nine. He closed it out with
a nervy 5-foot par putt
for a 1-under 71 and a
one-shot victory over the
47-year-old Westwood.
It matched the low
score of the day, one of
only three rounds under
par in the toughest final
round at Bay Hill in 41
years.
DeChambeau and
Westwood were never
separated by more than
one shot over the final 15
holes, a fascinating duel
of generations that came
down to the last shot.
For the second straight
day, DeChambeau revved
up thousands of fans on
the par-5 sixth hole by
smashing driver over the
lake and leaving himself
88 yards away on the
565-yard sixth hole. West-
wood was 168 yards be-
hind him, and raised both
arms to jokingly mimic
DeChambeau’s reaction
from the day before. They
both made birdie.
Westwood closed with
a 73, not a bad score con-
sidering the average of
75.49 was the highest for
a final round since 1980.
DeChambeau rose to
No. 6 in the world with his
ninth PGA Tour victory,
and he became the first
player this season with
multiple victories, to go
along with his U.S. Open
title in September.
Brynn Anderson/AP photos
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James smiles during the first half of basketball’s NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta on Sunday.
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press
TLANTA — Even in the strangest
NBA All-Star Game of them all, LeB-
ron James was still the perfect cap-
tain.
Team LeBron showed off its high-flying and
long-range skills during a dominating run to
close out the first half, setting up a 170-150
romp over Team Durant in the league’s 70th
midseason showcase Sunday night.
This one sure was different than the previous
69 All-Star contests.
Determined to pull off an exhibition that is
huge for TV revenue and the league’s worldwide
brand, the NBA staged the game in a mostly
empty arena in downtown Atlanta, a made-
for-TV extravaganza that was symbolic of the
coronavirus era.
Even with intense safety protocols in place,
two players didn’t even make it to tipoff. Phil-
adelphia stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons
were ruled out because they got haircuts from a
barber who tested positive for COVID-19.
But once the game began, it fell right in line
with the three previous All-Star outings with
the captain format. The top vote-getters in each
conference pick the teams, a duty that James has
earned all four years.
A
Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving guards Indiana Pacers
forward Domantas Sabonis during the first half.
He’s now 4-0, having defeated Stephen Cur-
ry’s squad in 2018 and teams selected by Mil-
waukee’s two-time reigning MVP Giannis Ante-
tokounmpo the last two years.
This time, James drafted his two former ad-
versaries to assemble a dominant squad that
blew away Kevin Durant’s team.
Antetokounmpo was the game MVP after
shooting 16 of 16 for 35 points. Curry chipped
in with 28 points, while Damian Lillard had
32. James spent most of the night admiring his
drafting skill, playing less than 13 minutes and
finishing with four points.
The only good thing for Durant: He didn’t
have to participate in this shellacking, sitting out
the game with an ailing hamstring.
Bradley Beal led Team Durant with 26 points.
On a night highlighting Historically Black
Colleges and Universities, Team LeBron swept
the first three quarters and was first to reach the
final target score, earning a total of $750,000
for its charity, the Thurgood Marshall College
Fund.
The game got out of hand late in the second
quarter.
With scant defense being played, Team LeB-
ron took turns dunking off alley-oop passes.
Chris Paul delivered back-to-back lobs that
Lillard and Curry slammed through. Then, it
was Paul on the receiving end of a payback pass
from Curry.
After showing they could handle shots up
close, Team LeBron headed outside in the final
seconds of the half.
See All-Star / A6
Blazers’ Covington falls short but donates big
BY ARON YOHANNES
The Oregonian
The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t have the
strongest start to NBA All-Star Weekend fes-
tivities at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Participating in the 19th Taco Bell Skills
Challenge on Sunday, veteran Blazers forward
Robert Covington was among the first play-
ers to be eliminated in the competition. The
eight-year pro was bested by Orlando Magic
big Nikola Vucevic in the first-round of the
obstacle-course challenge that tests players’
skills in dribbling, passing, agility and 3-point
shooting.
Vucevic eventually advanced to face Phoe-
nix’s Chris Paul, before falling short to Indi-
ana’s Domantas Sabonis in the finals.
Other players in the competition this year
included Dallas’ Luka Doncic and New York’s
Julius Randle.
Despite falling short in the Skills Challenge,
Covington’s early exit doesn’t overpower the
impact he made off the court at All-Star Week-
end.
Before his matchup against Vucevic, Cov-
ington, surprised two virtual fans, who are also
students at Covington’s alma matter Tennessee
State, with scholarships of $25,000 each. Cov-
ington proudly represented his Tennessee State
jersey during the competition, too — he’s the
NBA’s lone alumni from an Historically Black
Colleges and University (HBCU).
HBCU’s have been the spotlight during All-
Star Weekend by the NBA. The league is com-
mitting more than $2.5 million in funds and
resources toward HBCUs.
NASCAR
Larson nabs 1st win
since suspension
Kyle Larson is back in
NASCAR and back in vic-
tory lane.
On Sunday at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway, Larson
raced to his first NASCAR
victory since he was rein-
stated from a nearly year-
long suspension. He ran
just the first four races last
season, then lost his job
for using a racial slur while
playing a video game
early in the pandemic.
He worked all last year
on rebuilding his image
and was hired by Hen-
drick Motorsports when
NASCAR said the suspen-
sion would lift at the start
of this year.
“Thanks Mr. H. for be-
lieving in me,” Larson radi-
oed to boss Rick Hendrick
after crossing the finish
line.
He then celebrated
his first career on an in-
termediate track with a
smoke-filled burnouts.
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s
only Black full-time driver,
was the first competitor to
congratulate Larson at his
car. Larson’s move to Hen-
drick was expected to be
electric.
— Bulletin wire reports