A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MoNday, MarcH 29, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NBA
MEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT | SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 82, OREGON 68
Oregon falls; USC ends long Elite Eight wait
BY JOHN MARSHALL
AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Isaiah White
scored 22 points and Southern Cali-
fornia shut down Oregon’s potent of-
fense to reach the Elite Eight for the
first time in 20 years with an 82-68 win
in the West Region semifinals Sunday
night.
Pac-12 After Dark Indy-style turned
into a lights-out performance by USC.
The Trojans (25-7) clipped the
high-flying Ducks with their length on
the perimeter and 7-footer Evan Mo-
bley in the middle. Offensively, the re-
gion’s No. 6 seed bobbed and weaved
through the holes in Oregon’s defense,
shooting 57% and 10 of 17 from 3.
The all-around domination put three
Pac-12 teams in the Elite Eight for the
first time since 2001 and gives USC a
shot at undefeated Gonzaga in the re-
gion finals Tuesday.
Oregon certainly had no answer for
the long-armed Trojans.
The seventh-seed Ducks (21-7)
floundered against USC’s zone, unable
to find holes or get much of anything to
drop over it until a late rally that came
up short. The Pac-12’s best 3-point
shooting team (38%) went 5 of 21 from
the arc.
Eugene Omoruyi had 28 points 10
rebounds, and Chris Duarte scored 21
for the Ducks.
See Ducks / A6
MEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT | ELITE EIGHT PREVIEW
DEFENSIVE FOCUS
— FOR BOTH TEAMS
Oregon State, Houston meet Monday in the Midwest Region final
BY AARON BEARD
AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS —
T
simple all year for
U.S. men miss 3rd
straight Olympics
Houston under Kelvin
Sampson: play with toughness,
get after teams defensively and
go to work on the glass.
It has carried the Cougars within
a win of the Final Four — and it’s
working pretty well for Wayne Tin-
kle’s Oregon State squad in its sur-
prise NCAA Tournament run, too.
Decades have passed since the
second-seeded Cougars or 12th-
seeded Beavers last reached the
national semifinals — or made it
anywhere close, for that matter. But
their meeting Monday night in the
Midwest Region will send one team
through to the tournament’s final
weekend, and both should rely on a
similar defensive-minded approach
considering how their tournament
success has come so far.
“We know how good Oregon
State is,” Sampson said Sunday. “So
we’re going to have to play good.
They’re a lot more like us in that
they get on the boards with ath-
leticism and they play physical —
should be a very good ballgame.
We’re looking forward to it.”
It’s no major surprise to see
Houston (27-3) emerging from the
bottom half of the Midwest bracket,
securing the program’s first trip to
a regional final since 1984 amid the
famed “Phi Slama Jama” era. The
Cougars joined No. 1 overall seed
Gonzaga and region top seed Illi-
nois as the only teams in the top 10
of KenPom’s adjusted offensive and
defensive efficiency rankings enter-
ing Sunday.
Yet little else went to plan in the
Midwest.
Loyola Chicago took down the
Illini.
Eleventh-seeded Syracuse beat
Jeff Roberson/AP
Oregon State forward Warith Alatishe (10) shoots over Loyola Chicago forward Aher Uguak (30) during the second half of a
Sweet 16 game in the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday.
Alatishe added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Beavers, who won 65-58 to get to their first Elite Eight in decades.
Jeff Roberson/AP
Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle during the first half of Saturday’s game.
“You look at the games we’ve won, we’ve answered some pretty good runs from
the opponents and we’re playing really good D,” Tinkle said in an interview.
third-seeded West Virginia.
And most surprisingly, there
are the Beavers (20-12), still alive
with a chance to become the low-
est-seeded team ever to reach a Fi-
nal Four.
The same team that was picked
to finish last in the Pac-12, then
lost at home to a Portland team
that finished at No. 327 in the NET,
has won six straight games. That
included a run through the league
tournament to secure an NCAA
bid unlikely to come otherwise. In
the tournament for just the second
time since 1990, Oregon State is
now chasing its first trip to the na-
tional semifinals since 1963.
And much like with Houston,
they’ve won three NCAA games
primarily through defense and re-
bounding (plus-27 in the tourna-
ment).
“You look at the games we’ve
won, we’ve answered some pretty
good runs from the opponents and
we’re playing really good D,” Tin-
kle said. “And at times, if we’re a
little insecure with the ball, we’re
not making shots, defense is what’s
been keeping us in it.
“When you mention that to the
guys, to defend, to get stops, I think
it kind of keeps them from getting
too caught up in the moment. And
they’ve done a good job of that.”
See Elite / A6
WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT | LOUISVILLE 60, OREGON 42
Oregon rallies — but No. 2 seed Louisville heads to Elite Eight
SAN ANTONIO — Dana Evans
scored 29 points and No. 2 seed Louis-
ville advanced to the Elite Eight of the
women’s NCAA Tournament with a
60-42 win over sixth-seeded Oregon on
Sunday night.
The Cardinals will face top seed Stan-
ford on Tuesday night in the Alamo Re-
gion final.
Louisville (26-3) continued its stellar
CJ McCollum scored
seven of his 23 points in
the final two minutes and
the Portland Trail Blazers
beat the Toronto Raptors
122-117 on Sunday night.
Damian Lillard had
22 points and 11 assists
for the Blazers, who took
command in the third
quarter.
Pascal Siakam finished
with 26 points and eight
rebounds, and Fred VanV-
leet added 20 points and
eight assists for Toronto,
which lost for the 11th
time in 12 games.
The game was played
three days after the trade
deadline move in which
the Raptors sent Norman
Powell to the Blazers for
Gary Trent Jr., and Rodney
Hood.
Lillard, who sat out
Friday night’s win at Or-
lando with a left knee
contusion, joined Powell
in Portland’s three-guard
starting lineup.
Derrick Jones Jr.,
bumped from the lineup,
scored Portland’s final
seven points of the first
half, but Hood’s 3-pointer
at the buzzer gave To-
ronto a 74-68 halftime
edge.
The Blazers play next
at Detroit on Wednesday
night.
SOCCER
he formula has been
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
Blazers beat
Raptors 122-117
defensive play, holding Oregon (15-9)
to 14 points in the first half, including
six in the second quarter.
Evans provided the offense. After
going scoreless in the first quarter,
the All-America guard started to heat
up. Oregon had freshman Maddie
Scherr guarding her in the opening
period before she hurt her ankle and
had to come out of the game. Evans
responded by scoring 13 points in the
second and ended the period with a
nifty drive and dish right before the
buzzer to give Louisville a 29-14 ad-
vantage at the break.
Oregon rallied in the second half,
cutting its deficit to 10 after three quar-
ters. The Ducks were down 41-33 with
50 seconds left in the third after two
free throws by Nyara Sabally. But she
went down with a left ankle injury 20
seconds later when she stepped on
a teammate’s foot. Sabally had to be
helped off the court. She didn’t return
and finished with 14 points.
The Ducks got within 43-37 early in
the fourth quarter, but seven straight
points by Evans — including two deep
3-pointers — started a 13-0 run that put
the game away.
Evans capped her night with a fast-
break layup off a spectacular behind-
the-back pass from Mykasa Robin-
son, who stole the ball with a minute
left.
See Loss / A6
American players fell
to the field at the final
whistle. Another missed
Olympics soccer tourna-
ment for the U.S. men.
Juan Carlos Obregón
scored in the fourth min-
ute of first-half stoppage
time, goalkeeper David
Ochoa committed a blun-
der that gifted Luis Palma
a goal two minutes into
the second half and Hon-
duras beat the United
States 2-1 on Sunday in
an Olympic qualification
game at Guadalajara,
Mexico.
U.S. captain Jackson
Yueill pulled a goal back
with a curling 23-yard
shot in the 52nd minute,
but the Americans mis-
fired on several good
chances to equalize.
“Obviously, we’re dev-
astated, absolutely dev-
astated,” U.S. coach Jason
Kreis said. “In our locker
room, the guys are like it’s
a tragedy — a tragedy.”
U.S. men had trouble
creating chances in the
first half, and the Amer-
icans missed their third
straight Olympics.
“They were very well
man-oriented to stop
players, which didn’t give
us a lot of time to kind of
break them down,” Yeuill
said.
The American Olympic
skid is part of a trend that
includes the senior na-
tional team missing the
2018 World Cup.
“We lose an opportu-
nity to play in an interna-
tional tournament with
more pressure, where
these players have to be in
these environments and
continue to improve with
that pressure,” Kreis said.
Olympic men’s soccer
is limited to players both
Jan. 1, 1997, and later,
and clubs don’t have to
release players.
In contrast, the wom-
en’s tournament is open
to senior national teams.
The U.S. has won three of
the last four soccer gold
medals and is favored to
win again this summer.
Honduras advanced to
its fourth straight Olym-
pics this summer in Japan
after finishing fourth in
2016. Mexico, the 2012
gold medal winner,
earned the other berth.
— Bulletin wire reports