INSIDE: COMICS, OPINIONS & CLASSIFIEDS
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SaTUrday, aprIL 3, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
LOCAL CYCLING
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | FINAL FOUR
Bend Bike Swap
set for April 23-25
The eighth edition of
the Bend Bike Swap is
scheduled for April 23-25
just outside Thump Cof-
fee Roasters in Northwest
Crossing.
According to a news
release, an assortment of
bikes and cycling acces-
sories will be for sale, and
COVID-19 safety will be a
high priority.
The event is organized
by and a benefit for the
Bend Endurance Acad-
emy, which offers youth
programs in cycling, climb-
ing and nordic skiing.
Those wanting to sell
items can register them
online now through April
17 at bikeswapbend.com.
There will be no in-person
item registration. Item
check-in will be April 23
from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
and the Bike Swap sale will
occur April 24 from 10 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m. Unsold item
pickup is scheduled for
April 25 from 10 a.m. to
noon.
“The Bend Bike Swap
is a community service,”
said Ann Leitheiser, devel-
opment and fundraising
director at the Bend En-
durance Academy. “The
community can come to
this event and find a vari-
ety of bikes for affordable
prices. It’s also a bit of a cel-
ebration of spring as a lot
of us transition from slid-
ing on snow to spending
more time on two wheels.”
Professional mechanics,
local bike shop employees,
and avid cyclists will be
staged across the entire
swap to provide customer
service.
According to the re-
lease, the Bend Bike Swap
is a critical fundraiser for
the Bend Endurance Acad-
emy as funds raised help
provide tuition assistance
to families needing sup-
port.
The Bend Endurance
Academy receives a con-
signment fee of 22% on
each item sold and a maxi-
mum fee of $320 on items
priced at $1,500 or more.
Last year’s Bend Bike
Swap was canceled due to
the pandemic.
All attendees are re-
quired to wear face masks.
Safety precautions and so-
cial distancing will follow
current Deschutes County
guidelines.
For more information,
visit bikeswapbend.com
or contact Leitheiser via
email at ann@bendendur-
anceacademy.org.
— Bulletin staff report
MLB
League relocating
All-Star Game
NEW YORK — Ma-
jor League Baseball an-
nounced Friday it was
moving this summer’s All-
Star Game from Atlanta’s
Truist Park, a response to
Georgia enacting a new
law last month restricting
voting rights.
MLB’s announcement
came eight days after
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
signed a sweeping Repub-
lican-sponsored overhaul
of state elections that in-
cludes new restrictions on
voting by mail and greater
legislative control over
how elections are run.
Commissioner Rob
Manfred made the deci-
sion after discussions with
the Major League Base-
ball Players Association,
individual players and the
Players Alliance, an orga-
nization of Black players
formed after the death of
George Floyd last year.
“I have decided that
the best way to demon-
strate our values as a
sport is by relocating this
year’s All-Star Game and
MLB draft,” Manfred said
in a statement.
— Associated Press
Stanford survives, advances
Cardinal edges South
Carolina, will face Arizona
in all-Pac-12 title game
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
SAN ANTONIO —
H
aley Jones came
up with a big shot,
and Stanford got a
little bit of luck to get back to the
national championship game for
the first time in 11 years.
Jones scored 24 points,
including the go-ahead jumper
with 32 seconds left, to help
Stanford beat South Carolina 66-
65 on Friday night and advance to
the women’s NCAA Tournament
Morry Gash/AP
championship game.
Stanford players celebrate their victory over South Carolina in a women’s NCAA Tournament semifinal on Friday at the Alamodome
in San Antonio.
“It was a battle. It was a really
tough game where we had to work
really hard,” Stanford coach Tara
VanDerveer said.
It’s Stanford’s first trip to the title
game since 2010, which was also in
San Antonio. The Cardinal lost to
UConn in that contest, 53-47. But the
Cardinal will not have to face the Hus-
kies again, as Arizona upset Connecti-
cut Friday night 69-59 to ensure there
will be an all-Pac-12 title game.
“We got to play really well no mat-
ter who we play,” said VanDerveer. “I
don’t have any skeletons in the closet
or ghosts. This is a team that has con-
fidence in themselves.”
Leading by one, the Cardinal
turned it over with 6.2 seconds left
at midcourt and Brea Beal missed a
contested layup as Lexie Hull hustled
back to get in her way. Aliyah Boston
grabbed the rebound, but her putback
attempt also bounced off the rim set-
ting off a wild celebration by the Car-
dinal.
“It is nice to have a little karma go
your way,” VanDerveer said.
VanDerveer, who earlier this sea-
son topped Pat Summitt’s all-time
win mark of 1,098 victories and was
named the Naismith women’s bas-
ketball coach of the year on Friday,
will be looking for her third national
championship at the school and first
since 1992.
Trailing 65-64 with 32 seconds left,
Jones hit a jumper from the corner off
a rebound that gave the Cardinal their
one-point lead.
“I just saw the ball bouncing around
and most of my teammates were hit-
ting some bodies to open it up. I just
let it fly and I said, ‘Please, Jesus, go in,’
and it did,” said Jones, who was 11 for
14 from the field. “And then we just
had to go on to the next play, there’s
no time to get hyped about, we had to
get back on defense.”
The Gamecocks had a couple
chances after Jones’ shot. On the
next possession, Boston had her shot
blocked, but got her own rebound.
Then, with 15 seconds left, Destanni
Henderson threw a pass that was sto-
len by Ashten Prechtel.
After an inbounds, Cameron Brink
lost the ball at midcourt to Boston,
giving South Carolina those final two
chances.
“We got a pretty decent, two looks
at it, layup, follow up,” South Caro-
lina coach Dawn Staley said. “We just
came up short. We lost the way we did
and it’s heartbreaking.”
Jones and Fran Belibi ran to Bos-
ton, who was still standing under the
basket and both embraced her with a
long hug after the buzzer sounded,
“Me, Fran and Aliyah, we’re best
friends. We text every day. We talk all
the time. We love competing against
each other. I think us being so close
really boosted our competitiveness
against each other,” Jones said. “So, I
mean it was a hard-fought battle. She
played great. We both played great. So,
we just wanted to pay her the respect
that she deserves.”
See Stanford / B2
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | FINAL FOUR
UCLA gets chance to
Baylor, Houston reunite in semi
stop undefeated Gonzaga
BY DAVE SKRETTA
AP Basketball Writer
BY EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Next up on the
long list of wannabes eager to stop,
or even slow, the undefeated Gon-
zaga Bulldogs is a team basketball fans
might have heard of: UCLA.
In a strange twist that typifies a
strange year, the legacy program with
more national championships than
anyone is a plucky up-and-comer this
time around. The Bruins are listed as
the biggest underdog at the Final Four
in 25 years — 14 points — as they head
into Saturday night’s game.
And tiny Gonzaga — enrollment
7,300 with a dozen or so very talented
basketball players sprinkled among
them — is the behemoth nobody can
seem to touch.
UCLA is the fifth 11-seed to reach
the Final Four, and joins the 2011 VCU
squad as the second to get this far after
starting in the First Four, the prelimi-
nary round the NCAA added when it
expanded the bracket to 68 teams a de-
cade ago.
Heading into Selection Sunday, the
Bruins (22-9) were viewed as slightly
better than a bubble team, but the First
Four placement identified them as one
of the last four teams in. That placed a
chip on their shoulders, but with Gon-
zaga (30-0) looming, this is no time for
outside motivation, according to coach
Mick Cronin.
“I give them pointers and try to be
honest and tell them how hard it’s go-
ing to be because of who we’re playing,”
said Cronin, who has led UCLA within
two wins of the program’s 12th na-
Darron Cummings/AP
Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs (1) drives for a
layup against Southern California during
an Elite Eight game in the NCAA Tourna-
ment at Lucas Oil Stadium on Tuesday in
Indianapolis.
tional title. “I’m not the false-motiva-
tion guy, because none of that is going
to help you when you’re trying to stop
Jalen Suggs in transition.”
Suggs, a freshman who will likely
get drafted in the NBA lottery if he
leaves after one season, is one cog on
a team with the nation’s best offense
(91.6 points per game), the nation’s
best shooting percentage (54.8) and the
nation’s most impressive margin of vic-
tory (23.1).
The Zags have won 29 of their first
30 games by double digits.
The winner advances to Monday’s
final to face the winner of the Hous-
ton-Baylor semifinal.
See Gonzaga / B2
INDIANAPOLIS — Somebody will
be doing a joyful Texas two-step after
Baylor and Houston meet Saturday
night in the Final Four.
It could be Bears coach Scott Drew,
who built his now-mighty program
from the ashes of one of the worst
scandals in sports history. Led by
guards Jared Butler, Davion Mitch-
ell and MaCio Teague, they’ve have
rolled to their first semifinal since 1950
with the kind of joie de vivre nobody
thought possible two decades ago.
Or it could be Cougars counter-
part Kelvin Sampson, who has spent
more than a decade trying to outrun
the “cheater” label hung from his neck
during his days at Oklahoma and Indi-
ana. He might finally have done it with
this bunch, a mish-mash of overlooked
prospects and transfers that have fans
fondly recalling the halcyon days of Phi
Slama Jama.
Either way, the first Final Four game
involving two programs from the foot-
ball-mad Lone Star State will produce a
hoops finalist that stands on the verge
of a its first national championship.
“I don’t feel like there’s a lot of pres-
sure, just knowing all the work we
put in,” said Houston guard Quentin
Grimes. “I feel like every round we get
more confident, the pressure becomes
less, because we’re supposed to be here.”
That may be true these days. But
it certainly wasn’t true when Grimes
and every other player stepping on the
floor inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Sat-
urday night were beginning their bas-
ketball journeys.
It’s been 71 years since the Bears
reached this point. Seven coaches tried
and failed to replicate the success. The
last of those, Dave Bliss, brought the
program to its nadir: the 2003 shoot-
ing death of player Patrick Denney,
his teammate Carlos Dotson pleading
guilty to the murder, an NCAA inves-
tigation and attempts by Bliss to cover
it up.
Into that cesspool came Drew, the
squeaky clean son of Valparaiso coach
Homer Drew, who set about rebuilding
a program hit hard by NCAA sanc-
tions. In five years, he had the program
back in the NCAA Tournament, and
trips to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight be-
came commonplace until finally break-
ing through this season.
“You have to go through bad times,
good times, tough times,” Drew said,
“to get where you want to go.”
It helps that in a season challenged
every turn by COVID-19, Drew has
had a team full of veterans to help stay
the course. Butler, Mitchell and Teague
earned All-America votes, Mark Vital
will go down as one of the winningest
players in school history and many of
the backups would be starters on other
NCAA Tournament teams.
“We had goals,” Butler said, “to leave
a legacy at Baylor and be the best team
Baylor’s ever had.”
Meanwhile, the Cougars are con-
juring up images of “the Glide,” “the
Dream” and “the Silent Assassin” in
their first Final Four since Clyde Drex-
ler, Hakeem Olajuwan and the rest of
Phi Slama Jama led Houston to back-
to-back title games.
Much like Baylor, they rely on their
steely backcourt: sweet-shooting
Grimes, defensive whiz DeJon Jarreau
and all-energy guard Marcus Sasser.
See Baylor / B2