Wynne Broadcasting’s Randy Adams has been covering local Klamath Basin sports for 40 years and is the voice of the Henley Hornets and Mazama Vikings on radio at 106.5FM/1240AM The Winner CBS Sports Radio and 102.5/1450AM KFLS. Hear his daily morning show on Sunny 107!
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2019
SCORES:
Los Angeles Rams 28
Seattle Seahawks 12
San Francisco 49ers 48
New Orleans Saints 46
Oregon Ducks Football 37
Utah 15
Lakers 136
Blazers 113
Oregon Tech Men 80
Northwest University 68
Oregon Tech Women 82
Northwest University 77
College of Idaho Women 80
Oregon Tech Women 68
Klamath Union 49
Phoenix 34
Mazama Vikings Boys 54
Spring Creek 36
McKinleyville Girls 62
Mazama Vikings Girls 41
Henley Hornets 50
Mt. Shasta 24
Siletz Valley 66
Chiloquin 33
The #13 ranked Oregon Ducks took the Pac-12 Conference Championship on Friday night with their great win over #5 Utah, 37-15. Perhaps keeping them out of the National Championship arena was the scheduled game and ultimate loss to powerhouse Auburn earlier in the season, losing on a TD pass with 9 seconds left.
But coach Mario Cristobal says he’s okay that Oregon will play Ohio State the next two seasons and Georgia in 2022. Oregon will be seen on the national stage for these games and Cristobal believes his team will get to show the whole country what a great program Oregon has in the seasons ahead.
Looking back, Cristobal’s team dropped the close game to Auburn in the season-opener, then Arizona State ambushed the Ducks to win 31-28 on Nov. 23 to eliminate them from CFP contention. UO then beat Oregon State in the Civil War game.
But back to the Ducks Friday night win at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara with their tough defense and determined rushing attack and quarterback Justin Herbert who powered the Ducks to their victory 37-15.
Ducks’ CJ Verdell ran like a sprinter for a 70-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to seal the win, as the Ducks ran for 239 net yards against the league’s best defense, statistically. Verdell scored three touchdowns and gained 208 rushing yards.
The Ducks had 432 yards of offense, and its rushing tally came on 41 carries (5.8 per carry). Verdell had 208 yards on 18 carries, and Herbert went 14 of 26 for 193 yards and the one TD.
And, the Ducks defense held the Utes and QB Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss in check, putting an exclamation point on the fact that Oregon plays pretty good defense, too.
Herbert earned his signature win, throwing deep for completions in the first half, including 45 yards for a touchdown to Johnny Johnson III, and picked up big yards on runs.
The Ducks (11-2) didn’t get a lot of national press love or a chance against the Utes (11-2), who could have made an argument for the College Football Playoff with a win. It was Oregon’s third victory in the Pac-12 title game, along with 2011 and 2014, after which the Ducks won the Rose Bowl games.
Now the Ducks will be heading to the Rose Bowl to take on Wisconsin, on New Year’s Day in Pasadena. The Rose Bowl berth caps four years of building under three coaches. Most seniors played on the disappointing 4-8 team in 2016, started to improve the next year and then went 9-4 in 2018 in Mario Cristobal’s first season.
Adding to the excitement for the local Eugene standout, two-time academic All-American, Oregon senior quarterback Justin Herbert has been named the Pac-12 Conference Football Scholar Athlete of the Year the conference office announced at the week’s end. Herbert, who has a 4.01 grade-point average while majoring in general science, is the first Oregon football player to earn the award since its inception before the 2007-08 academic school year. Among all Oregon sports, Herbert is the 18th Duck student-athlete to claim the honor. A four-year starter, Herbert has led Oregon to a 10-2 record this season, and a Pac-12 Conference North Division title. During the regular season, he completed 258-of-382 passes for 3,140 yards and 31 touchdowns with just five interceptions. Herbet helped secure a trip to the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day after the Ducks won the Pac-12 Conference Championship game against Utah, 37-15 on Friday night.
Lakers takes Blazers 136-113, on Friday night
The mood at the Moda Center was electric at the Lakers came to town to take on the Portland Trail Blazers, but it was not to be for the Blazers. Starting forward Rodney Hood suffered a season-ending injury and head coach Terry Stotts was ejected for the first time in this career in the process of the Trail Blazers losing 136-113 to the Lakers in front of the sellout crowd of 19,912.
The Trail Blazers are now 9-14 overall and 4-5 at home this season.
Despite the Lakers shooting 70 percent from the field while shooting half as many free throws, the Trail Blazers were able to make it a game for the first quarter. However, it is debatable whether anyone rooting for the Blazers much cared about the score at that point after Rodney Hood left the game with an Achilles injury, which the team would later confirm as a ruptured left Achilles.
“It’s tough,” said Damian Lillard. “You hate to see injuries in the league, period, but you hate to see one of your teammates go down with an injury like that, especially a starter and somebody that’s a really good person. Having a great season, fitting in really well with our team and a big part of what we do. You feel for him personally more than anything. Just sad to see that happen to him.”
Things would go downhill rapidly from there. The Lakers would go on a 15-0 run to take a 58-39 lead with 7:14 to play in the first half, and from there on, the game was little more than an exercise in Portland trying to trim the lead to single digits, only to have Los Angeles push the advantage back to a comfortable margin.
“The priority was to keep them out of the paint, we didn’t do that early,” said Stotts. “But they made their runs by shooting threes. Rondo hit two and LeBron James hit one that got some separation in the first half. LeBron got going in the second half, so they shot a great percentage from three and so when they’re scoring in the paint and scoring from the free throw line and scoring from three, it’s a pretty good offense.”
Portland never got closer than within 11 points and trailed by as many as 27 in the second half before the game mercifully ended with a 23-point margin of victory for the road team.
Damian Lillard shot 50 percent from the field and 9-of-11 from the free throw line for 29 points to go with eight assists and seven rebounds in 40 minutes.
Carmelo Anthony, Anfernee Simons and CJ McCollum all finished with 15 points and Kent Bazemore rounded out Portland’s double-digit scorers with 10 points in 25 minutes.
Anthony Davis led all scorers with 39 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field and 13-of-15 shooting from the free throw line to go with nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists in 32 minutes. LeBron James went 11-of-23 from the field for 31 points while also handing out eight assists and snatching seven rebounds in 33 minutes.
The Trail Blazers shot 86.2% from the FT line (25-of-29). Portland also dished out 20 assists, marking their 12th straight game recording 20+ assists.
Klamath Basin High School Basketball Scores:
BOYS:
Foothill (CA) 70, MAZAMA 40HENLEY 73, Brookings-Harbor 50GIRLS
Henley 59, MT. SHASTA (CA) 31
Bonanza 44, OAKRIDGE 16Powder Valley 51, NORTH LAKE 41Mazama is playing in the Mt. Shasta tournament all weekend, while Henley will participate in the Yreka tournament.
Klamath Union opens the season with St. Mary’s of Medford at Phoenix High as part of a two day tournament there.
League play for Skyline teams doesn’t begin until the first of the year.