Continued from Page 10A“I’m always talking, al-

ways trying to encourage theguys,” Fleming said. “I’mmaking sure they know howto fix something. It’s not say-ing ‘don’t do this.’ It’s ‘youtried it this way, now let’s trysomething else.’ It’s notbeing negative about some-thing, but giving positive en-couragement.”

But Fleming’s leadershipgoes beyond his words — hisability to affect a game in avariety of ways makes himone of the Panthers’ mostversatile assets.

“He doesn’t have to scorea lot to be able to control agame,” Kreta said. “He re-bounds for us. He dives onthe floor. We put him on ouropponents’ best offensiveplayer and he largely shutsthem down. He helps us in alot of different ways.”

Those hustle plays havedefined Fleming’s season sofar.

“I know what my role is,”he said. “I’m here to be thatspark plug for the team. Iwant to get everyone going,to play defense and geteveryone energized.”

His success on the court isa product of all the work he’sput in off it, Kreta said.Whether it’s extra film ses-sions to working on foot-work, Fleming has become amore complete player.

“It’s not necessarily hardbecause it’s the kind of per-son I am,” Fleming said.“I’m an energetic person. Imay be quiet around other

people, but I like to play at ahigh level and fast pace.Basketball is my love. I loveplaying sports and I want togive 100 percent everytime.”

As Central prepares toopen Mid-Willamette Con-ference play against SouthAlbany on Jan. 14, Flemingsaid the Panthers are fullyrealizing each player’s roleon the team. And, withFleming in part leading the

charge, he believes Central isready to surprise its Class 5Aleague opponents.

“I feel like we’ve turned afew heads,” Fleming said ofthe Panthers 5-3 startagainst tough nonleaguecompetition, which includ-ed 6A No. 1 David Douglasand 5A No. 1 Mountain View.“We want to keep thoseheads turned and make surepeople know this wasn’t afluke.”

Avgi, a redshirt junior, played a bigrole in Western Oregon’s men’s basket-ball team’s 72-64 win over Montana StateBillings on Saturday. Avgi scored a game-high 23 points, shooting 11-for-15 from

the field. He also grabbed five rebounds and had one stealand one block as the Wolves (11-3 overall, 3-1 Great North-west Athletic Conference) held off the Yellowjackets for thevictory.

Itemizer-Observer

Andy Avgi

Athlete of the Week

Western Oregon

Locke, a senior, came up in a big wayfor Perrydale’s girls basketball teamagainst Monroe on Saturday. Locke ledall scorers with 24 points as the Piratesearned a wild 60-56 overtime win.

Locke’s ability to score at will and get her teammates in-volved made her perhaps Perrydale’s most valuable weaponagainst Monroe. Locke has helped the Pirates to a 5-3 recordoverall entering the week.

Cheyenne LockePerrydale High

To submit nominations for the Itemizer-Observer Athlete ofthe Week, contact Sports Editor Lukas Eggen at 503-623-2373or leggen@polkio.com by 9 a.m. on Monday.

Polk County Itemizer-Observer • January 7, 2015 11APolk County Sports

Dallas takes 10thMiller places second for Dragons

PREP WRESTLING ROUNDUP

LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer fileCentral senior Kyler Fleming can spark momentum forthe Panthers on offense and defense.

Fleming: Senior servesas spark plug for team

Itemizer-Observer staff reportVANCOUVER, Wash. —

Facing stiff competitionfrom Washington and Ore-gon schools, the Dallas

H i g hwrestlingt e a mp l a c e d10th at theP a c i f i cC o a s tWrestlingC h a m p i -o n s h i p son Friday

and Saturday at Hudson’sBay High School.

“We took our team to atough tournament,” Dallascoach Tony Olliff said. “Sev-eral of our wrestlers hadone to three Washingtonstate champions in theirbrackets from various lev-els.”

Nolan Miller finishedsecond at 120 pounds,while Matthew Dindingerp l a c e d f o u r t h a t 1 3 8pounds to lead the Dragonsat the 33-school competi-tion.

“Nolan Miller had a greattournament,” Olliff said.“He got beat in the finals by

a Washington kid who ispretty tough.”

Miller’s loss in the cham-pionship round was his firstof the season, dropping hisrecord to 26-1.

Dallas split its wrestlersinto two teams over theweekend, as the Dragonsplaced third out of sixschools at the Junction CityInvitational on Saturday.Justin Spencer (160) and Jeff

Dunagan (170) won theirrespective weight divisionsto lead Dallas.

CENTRAL TAKES THIRD ATINVITATIONAL: The CentralHigh wrestling team celebrat-ed a new year with a strongshowing at the Bob Bishop In-vitational on Saturday. TheP a n t h e r sp l a c e dthird out of21 teams.Ti l lamookw o n t h eteam title.T a n n e rSwinehart(170 pou-n d s ) a n dMarlon Tu-ipulotu (285) won their respec-tive weight classes, while ColinSwinehart (145) and BetoMeza (195) placed second. Butit was their resiliency thatcaught coach Van Holstad’s at-tention from wrestlers likeRiley Olson (195), who battledback in the consolation brack-ets to earn points. “One of thethings we needed to work onwas wrestling in those conso-lation rounds and scoring,”Holstad said. “Those are therounds that are important intournaments, and we had a lotof guys who wrestled real wellin those.”

Miller

Next UpWhat: Brunner Invita-

tional. When: Saturday, 9

a.m.Where: Dallas High

School gym. Admission: $5 for

adults; $4 for students.Children 6 and underand seniors are free.

Who: The Dragonwrestling team will hostthe annual tournament.

Did you know? Theinvitational, formerlycalled the Dallas BoosterClub Wrestling Tourna-ment, was renamedafter former tournamentdirector Janet Brunner.

T. Swinehart

Itemizer-Observer staff reportMONROE — The Perry-

dale girls basketball teamwon its final nonleague con-test in thrilling fashion, de-feating Monroe 60-56 inovertime on Saturday. ThePirates rallied from a 31-20halftime deficit to force theextra period.

Senior guard CheyenneLocke scored a game-high24 points, while Sarah Nel-son added 11 points andTelaney Newton scored 10points to lead Perrydale.

As the Pirates resume Tri-River Conference play, find-ing consistency will be theteam’s top priority.

“I’m not sure the girls fullyunderstood the intensityyou need to bring everynight,” Perrydale coach TerryNewton said. “… We alwayswork hard. My washing ma-chine works hard too, but itdoesn’t always work smart.That’s the one step we haveto work on: working hardand working smart.”

CENTRAL DOWNS MOUN-TA I N V I E W: Centra l heldMountain View to seven totalpoints during the second andthird quarters as the Pantherspulled away for a 45-32 win onSaturday. Central trailed 12-8after the first quarter, but

o u t s c o r e dthe Cougars3 0 - 7 o v e rt h e n e x ttwo periodsto earn thew i n . Ky l i eNash scored15 points tol e a d t h eP a n t h e r s .

Reba Hoffman added eightpoints and Sai Tapasa scoredsix points. Central hostedAloha Tuesday after press timein the team’s final nonleaguecontest.

DALLAS WINS DEFENSIVEBATTLE: The Dallas girls bas-ketball team ended its run atthe Nike Interstate Shootoutwith a defensive battle onDec. 30. The Dragons heldWilson to six points in the firsthalf, en route to a 29-24 win.

Eva Roncosco-red 11p o i n t s t olead Dallas.S a r a hZ w i c k e rs c o r e ds e v e np o i n t s ,while SarahM i t c h e l l

added six points. FALLS CITY STRUGGLES:

Falls City lost three games atthe 1A Hoops Classic andAlsea Tin Hat Tournament lastwe e k . Th e M o u n t a i n e e r sopened the week at the 1AHoops Classic in Portland,falling to McKenzie 42-22 onDec. 30 and Portland Lutheran50-41 on Dec. 31. Falls Citythen competed at the AlseaTin Hat Tournament, losing toAlsea 44-38 and having its sec-ond game on Saturday can-celed. Brittany Varney scored ateam-high 15 points againstAlsea, while Tierra Reynoldsadded 11 points. The Moun-taineers lost to Siletz Valley 47-32 on Monday. Varney scored11 points to lead Falls City.

Pirates win in overtimeLocke scores 24 points to lead Perrydale

PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL ROUNDUP

Nash

Zwicker

Star: Mottershaw rankssecond at WOU in points

Continued from Page 10AOriginally developed in

the 1970s, PRP has gainedrecent national attentionwhen several prominentathletes, including golferTiger Woods and footballplayers Hines Ward andTroy Polamalu, used thetherapy to recover fromsports-related injuries.

Nelson received the treat-ment in mid-December.She returned to the courtagainst Damascus Christianon Dec. 29.

Now it’s a waiting gameto see if the therapy hashelped fix her shoulder.Nelson said if this does notwork out long term, surgeryis a possibility.

“Slowly starting to feelthat (my shoulder is) a littlebit tighter,” Nelson said.“Not a whole lot, but I’m justhoping it keeps it in more.It’s supposed to continue tostrengthen over time.”

But no matter what hap-pens next, Nelson knowsshe won’t be facing it alone.

Sister actAs Sarah faces an uncer-

t a i n f u -ture abouther shoul-der, onet h i n g i sw i t h o u td o u b t .Her sister,Emily, willbe by her

side helping her howevershe can.

“She’s my trainer,” Sarahsaid smiling.

It’s Emily who helpsSarah tape her shoulder be-fore practices and games,just one mark of a relation-ship that goes far beyondthe basketball court.

For almost as long as theycan remember, Sarah andEmily have been playingsports together.

“We don’t know any dif-ferent, so it’s not weird forus,” Emily said. “I competejust as hard against her as Ido anyone else.”

Sarah and Emily playedmany of the same sports.

But don’t expect thesesiblings to get in eachother’s way.

“I think when we were

younger,we got inmore ar-guments,”S a r a hs a i d .“Now wedon’t real-ly bickero r a n y -

thing. We’re just anotherplayer on the team.”

That doesn’t mean thebond they share on the bas-ketball court isn’t beneficial.

“Emily and Sarah arevery special young ladies,”Perrydale coach Terry New-ton said. “They’re a valu-able part of the program.One of the things we try towork on is character. We’refortunate to have just reallygood people, and Emilyand Sarah are pretty muchthe standard.”

That sisterly bond ex-tends beyond the siblings.

In fact, that’s what setsthe Pirates apart, Emilysaid.

“We all grew up together,went to school together andplayed together,” Emilysaid. “So, we’re all just as

close as Sarah and I. That’swhy none of this feelsweird, I think.”

But being close does haveits downsides, Newton said.

“They won’t always calleach other out,” Newtonsaid. “Sometimes there is apoint where you have to say‘I don’t agree with that’.”

One thing ever yoneagrees on is that the team’scloseness could be itsbiggest asset, Newton said.

As Sarah and the Piratesembark on an uncertain fu-ture this season, they knowthat while they may just beteammates on the surface,they have the support of afamily behind them.

Shoulder: Bond extends to team

Continued from Page 10AMottershaw’s ability to

play multiple positions forthe Wolves makes her avaluable backcourt player.

“She has the versatility toplay the one or the twoguard,” WOU coach HolliHoward-Carpenter said.“She has probably been ourmost consistent player ineffort, (her desire) to winand play on the court. Weneed that to spread to therest of the team.”

Mottershaw’s increase inscoring and assists is be-cause of more than anuptick in minutes.

Mottershaw has becomemore aggressive. Alongsideforward Dana Goularte,Mottershaw gives theWolves a dangerous inside-outside threat.

“I like the aggressivenessof the game,” she said. “Ilike all the little things andthat you can never be thebest. There’s always some-thing to improve on. I likethat.”

But as much as Motter-shaw has improved in be-coming a scoring threat, theWolves are looking to be-come even deeper on of-fense.

M o t t e r s h a w a n dGoularte combine to score28.5 of the team’s 60.6points per game, a trend

that Howard-Carpentersaid must change for theWolves to be successful.

“It can’t be Dana and Jor-dan carrying the team everysingle night,” Howard-Car-penter said. “We have totake care of business on of-fense.”

Western Oregon entersthe week at 4-7 overall, butMottershaw is ready to do

whatever she can to makethe Wolves a contender inthe Great Northwest Athlet-ic Conference.

“I’m a super-competitiveperson,” Mottershaw said.“I’ll do whatever it takes towin. I want to be a part ofthis program and makeWestern Oregon a school tobe reckoned with in theconference.”

LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-ObserverJordan Mottershaw brings the ball up the court. Mot-tershaw has played both the one and two guard.

S. Nelson E. Nelson

Up Next • Perrydale resumed

Tri-River Conference playat Central Linn Tuesdayafter press time.

• The Pirates host RegisFriday at 5:30 p.m. beforeplaying at East Linn Chris-tian on Tuesday.

• Perrydale entered theweek with a 5-3 record.