Mount Hood

The LeBron vs Durant saga continues

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The game of basketball has fallen into the hands of many greats. While it may have been passed on from athlete to athlete, there were few that took it to the highest standard. There were athletes, and then there was LeBron James, and Kevin Durant, who are now exceeding the game to an even higher echelon. It’s them above everyone else, but clearly, for them, there’s a superior, there’s one who’s fitter, there’s a better.
Since his Akron, Ohio days, nobody had ever seen anybody like the former in “King James.” At 16 years old, he was already the ultimate basketball stud. He was fast, strong, had very high IQ basketball awareness for his age, and was imposing on the court. What is seen in James at age 33 now is the completion and maturation of the aforementioned.
Convincingly, he took the basketball world to a new level. Passing others with three state championships. He then passed one of the greatest draft classes in 2003, his class; passed the MJ and Kobe eras; passed the many failed attempts at surpassing a championship-less legacy; and passed, to where he’s settled now, with three championships, multiple MVP’s and “best player” to his resume; passed, like a jump to the next paragraph.
Then along came a spider, weaving his way about concurrently while James was developing his game until completion. Kevin “The Durantula” Durant, James’s rival in every sense of the competitive word, also went from being a high-school standout, to having little to no college experience before hitting the NBA. He too, was moving the game along and convincingly; winning league scoring titles, earning an MVP and planting his flag as one of the NBA’s best.

A collision course was inevitable — it was only a matter of time before the two met on the big scene. The 2012 finals, and the two then vets, followed much anticipation when their two respective teams in the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat met.
But it was a tale of two journeys. James left Cleveland, a place he made his lair for years — abandoned for what many had claimed was an easier route to the top. He joined Miami an already stacked team with Dwyane Wade. Hate and scrutiny followed him. But perhaps wrongly so, as he executed a carefully crafted plan for the future. There he was able to fully develop as a player, finally reigning in an era of dominance, but this dominance was unlike the dominance of before. This was championship trophy dominance.
After Miami/James defeated the Thunder/Durant in dominant fashion, four games to one and winning another championship in 2013, James returned to Cleveland two years later. This second run with Cleveland brought with him finals experience along with a blossomed repertoire of skill sets that helped win Cleveland’s first ever championship. It was James’s time. He was clearly the Jordan of this era.
After numerous unsuccessful NBA finals restorations, Durant too jumped ship and onto a winning environment. The same scrutiny followed him into Golden State with the Warriors, his new grounds. But having left Russell Westbrook, who won the league MVP following Durant’s departure, he knew he had to follow in Golden States’ direction, since only few teams like the Warriors had what it took to beat James’s Cavs, having already beat them in the 2015 finals. The fit came synchronously while KD was finally hitting his stride.
A 2017 finals bid between the Cavs and Warriors was set then, and the James versus Durant saga continued.
Only this time around, a shift in momentum occurred as Durant would finally maneuver past his ringless legacy, and passed James, once the Warriors bested Cleveland, 4-1.
The matchup happened again this past Christmas, with the Warriors again out gaining the Cavs. And again, the Warriors got the better on Martin Luther King Jr. day, sweeping the season series.

This rivalry may have tilted just a bit in Durant’s favor. He’s got the defending championship team to his arsenal that includes potential MVP nominee Stephen Curry, and has clearly outplayed James in their recent matchups. The head-head matchup says otherwise and says James is ahead in the win-loss matchup, 14-6. They’re close in points-per-game but James has a slight lead in rebounds. James’s also a better passer averaging three more assists than Durant. But Durant’s Warriors (37-10) are clearly better than the Cavs (28-18) right now. The NBA world has yet to see more of this matchup.


Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wsj.com

Know Your Enemies: Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Two foes head into town on Jan. 25 and 27 to play the women’s basketball team. Enter first the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks who don a 12-3 overall record and 8-2 conference mark, both good for third place in the GNAC.
Enter the Central Washington Wildcats who are in the middle of the pack of the GNAC, presenting a 10-8 overall mark while creating a 6-4 conference figure.
Historically since entering the NCAA-DII era in 2000, Western’s been unable to gain advantage when facing these two opponents. The Nighthawks have produced a dark cloud over the Wolves via the 10-7 record through visits to the campus. And the head-head battle favors the Nighthawks overall at 23-12.
To show for it this season, Northwest Nazarene has been an offensive juggernaut, sporting the highest points per game average in the GNAC at 79.7. The rain over Monmouth may remain if the Wolves can’t hone in on NNU’s field goal percentage, another league best at .448. And two markswomen from the perimeter for Northwest Nazarene are number one and two in the league. In that category, Avery Albrecht is shooting at 48-percent and while Mckenna Walker is making 46-percent of her attempts.
In their past encounter on Dec. 30, Northwest Nazarene displayed this feat draining three-pointers throughout to get the blowout victory, 94-67.
The previous Wolves’s confrontation with Central Washington on Dec. 19 also included difficulty. They dealt with the Cats’s full court press defense unsuccessfully and turnovers turned in a final score of 72-65 which made it eight straight games in favor of the ‘Cats. Central Washington looks to front that defense again as they lead the league with 3.8 blocked shots per game.
Western has a few things in store to fight off their opponents. The 8-8 Wolves have a balanced offensive attack and get to the free throw line with efficiency, where they lead the GNAC in that shooting category. They also fare better playing at home at 6-3. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Wolves come away with one after returning home

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

After taking a long road trip to Alaska, the Wolves finally returned home on Jan. 16 to play the Concordia University Cavaliers and the Montana State-Billings Yellowjackets on Jan. 18. Coming into the game against the Cavaliers, both teams found themselves locked right in the middle of the GNAC conference standings, with the Wolves gaining a game on the Cavaliers in the 68-51 victory. But they got stung in the game against the Yellowjackets, 65-56, suffering their third home loss of the year.
The first game was a back and forth affair until the end of the third quarter, with the Wolves clinging to a 43-40 lead. In the fourth, the team ran away with the game. This was lead by five minutes of superb defense that produced turnovers and forced missed shots on the Wolves’s end. Concordia only managed four points during that time frame.
The defense helped the Wolves jump out to a seven point lead in the final five minutes, and by that point, there was no looking back. With the game barely out of reach as time was winding down, all the Wolves had to do was continue to knock down free throws. Junior guard, Sydney Azorr, had 7 of her 15 points in the last two minutes as the team poured on points late to ice the game. Over the course of the game, the Wolves shot 19 of 20 from the charity stripe, which comes as no surprise as they lead the entire conference in free throw shooting percentage.
The Wolves versus the Yellowjackets was a race neck and neck heading into the fourth. This time it was the Wolves who started slow in the fourth, being held scoreless for the first 4:53 of the final period.
The scoring drought proved to be too much to overcome as the Yellowjackets jumped out to an eight point lead and kept the game out of reach. Junior, Natalie DeLonge, lead the way for Western as she scored 16 points and hauled in six rebounds. Azorr was also able to find success, primarily on the glass were she grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The past week of games brings the team’s record to 8-8 with another slate of home contests on the schedule for this week. On Thursday, Jan. 25, the team will be hosting Northwest Nazarene. Then, the Wolves will be looking to defeat Central Washington on Saturday, Jan 27. Both games will be at 7:00 p.m.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Wolves streak moves to ten: looks to improve national standing

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

Last week on Jan. 18 and 20 was business as usual for the men’s team as they racked up another two victories against GNAC conference opponents. This brings their current winning streak to double digits, after the team cracked the top ten in national rankings earlier in the week.

On Thursday, Jan. 18, the Wolves ousted Central Washington Wildcats, 89-70. Then on Saturday, Jan. 20, they derailed Northwest Nazarene, 82-64.

Up early against the Wildcats, it was clear that Western was in control, as the defense held the Wildcats to just 29.4 percent shooting in the first half. On the offensive side of the ball, Senior Tanner Omlid started off at a blistering pace, scoring 17 points on 7/9 shooting in the first twenty minutes.

After holding a fifteen point advantage at the end of the first half, the Wolves continued to outpace Central Washington. Omlid’s hot start seemed to inspire key members off the bench on Thursday as the game went on. Junior guard, Demetrius Trammell, was lights out during the second half of play. He scored 14 points in 13 minutes while shooting perfectly from the field, including four three pointers.

After the win, the team moved to an overall record of 16-1 heading into Saturday’s game against the Nighthawks. The game plan for this matchup was to make life difficult for Nazarene guard Obi Megwa, who came into the game leading the conference in scoring (19.1 ppg). That is exactly what the Wolves defense did, forcing Megwa to shoot 8/21 from the field while limiting his impact on the result of the game. The team started off hot once again, this time capturing a 13 point lead at halftime, while bringing that lead up to 25 at one point in the second half. After scoring 18 points against Central Washington earlier in the week, senior JJ Chirnside scored another 18 off the bench against the Nighthawks to help capture the 82-64 win.

With these two solid wins, the Wolves may start to climb even higher in the national rankings when they are released on Tuesday, Jan. 23. The team will look to extend their streak to 12 this week against two Alaskan conference foes on the road when they take on the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks on Jan. 25. Their road trip finally concludes on Saturday, Jan. 27 against the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Wolves gain and maintain

wouwolves.com

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

A fierce Wolves team clawed their way to two wins this past week on Jan. 11 and 13. Improving their win-loss mark to 15-1 overall and 8-1 in GNAC play, they first played at Saint Martin’s, getting the decisive victory, 79-71. They maintained their successful week in Seattle defeating Seattle Pacific, 83-79.
Marching in first were the Saints with a 10-4 record, ranked fourth overall in the GNAC. Leading the charge, was Saints’s guard Luke Chavez with 17.2 points per game while forward Tavian Henderson is shooting 78 percent on the season, a top mark in the GNAC.
Senior forward Tanner Omlid led the Wolfpack, however, running the score up to a 41-30 lead after a 15-0 run early in the first half.
The Saints came back in the second half and kept biting at the lead, cutting the margin to as low as three at one point.
A 19-point, six-rebound, three-assist, two-block and two-steal stat line on the night by Omlid as well as 24 points in bench production kept the Saints at bay.
In front of the Saints in the GNAC standings is the Seattle Pacific Falcon squad that landed on Jan. 13 sporting a 5.6 rebounding margin versus its opponents.

Omlid again was everywhere on the stat board. The second game was a mirror image of the first as the Wolves led by double-digits for most of the half and pinning the Falcons, 51-40. The Falcons were a different team, however, and managed to pull ahead, 79-78, with a minute remaining in the game.

Wolves forward JJ Chirnside came up big on the defensive end grabbing two clutch steals and a block in waning seconds. Omlid finished the night with 20 points.

The Wolves head back home, first in a red out night opposite Central Washington on Jan. 18 and an alumni night game against Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 20.

 

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

 

 

Running with Dustin

Dustin Nading

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Who is Dustin Nading? In the flesh, “he’s a guy from Longview, Washington, currently running track and field, and studying exercise science at Western.” Here’s a runner, who in 2016 finished in either second or first for his team in five total meets. Then, in 2017, he was part of the Wolves’s indoor national championship team in distance-medley-relay. He’s also a student closing in on graduation with a goal of earning his doctorate degree in physical therapy, while looking towards a professional track and field career after Western.
He’s a son who admires his father Jeff Nading the most, and a reading and video game enthusiast among other things. “Obviously one of my main interests aside from running in general, is following and watching sports, even when I’m not participating. But reading is something I care tons about. You know: new literature, old literature; fiction, non-fiction.”
With allocation and timing being two important things in running, if there’s time for it, he’ll enjoy his leisures playing Fortnite, a video game. What is Fortnite? “So you start out by dropping into a map with 100 other people, you try to be the last one alive, and you get one life. It’s a pretty fun online game.”

The game has brought along with it a sort of bonding experience for Nading and many of his teammates who also play.
“Most of my hobbies revolve around things you can build relationships in.”
When not on the track or in the lounge, Nading’s in the lab applying science with athletic performance. A junior majoring in exercise science — his favorite course in the field? “Probably physiology of exercise. It really digs into what goes on when your doing different activities, aerobically or anaerobically,” he said. “A lot of times, you’ll go out and do a hard workout and you’ll feel this burning in your muscles, and you’re like ‘why does it hurt like that, why’s that happening?’ and a lot of what that class was was just getting to the cellular level and asking ‘How does your body respond to different kinds of exercises and why you feel the way you feel.’”

It’s all about figuring out the means to your end Nading explained. “So I think understanding things like that makes you not only a better athlete, or better academically, but makes you better at almost every other aspect of your life.”
Back on the track, Nading put that and everything into view this past Saturday, on Jan. 13 at the indoor track preview in Washington, his home state. He ran the 3,000 meters finishing sixth overall and set a new GNAC record time of 8.11.67. That bettered teammate David Ribich’s 2017 mark by two seconds; Nading received the GNAC athlete of the week award afterwards. There he was also guided by several teammates in multiple events. Overall, the team broke five records. It’s been quite a year for Nading and the Wolves. They’re fresh off competing in the Cross Country Nationals back in December, where the men’s team finished 21st overall. And after winning indoors in 2017, the Wolves look to repeat in the current indoor event. Looking back on the indoor meet last year, he took time to reflect on his championship teammates. “Those are people,” speaking about seniors Ribich and Joshua Dempsey “who’ve made great athletic performances and people I respect immensely.”
With sights always set on the track, he has a dynamic view of it. “There’s so many great athletes and role models to learn from. And one of the greatest things about it is is it’s so extensive. There’s a niche and place in the track world for almost everyone whether that’s running or watching which going back to the hobbies is something I enjoy because even when I’m not performing there’s always some performance you can learn from.”  
For Nading, these are things and people he emulates and applies to improve his own performance and athletic ability.
“Every time I step on the line, I race for excellence. I’m representing my school but above all else, I’m representing my teammates and one thing going through my mind is I’m going to run to the best of my ability. I’m going to do all of the little things to get the big result in the end.”
Passing the baton, Nading gave advice for young up and coming runners, advising them to, “Believe in your teammates, and invest early in the sport because the sport will invest in you and that goes from paying attention to performances, watching, to working on your technique, to putting in the time for working out and bettering yourself … but if you invest in the sport in every aspect, you will undoubtedly get a return more than would you have expected.”

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

 

Flag football hits the big stage

WOU Intramurals

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

It was on Jan. 5 through Jan. 7 in Pensacola, Florida, that the Wolves flag football club earned their shot at competing for a national flag football championship.

The result, however, went unfavorably for the team, unable to grab wins in pool play for tournament seeding. They entered play first against Tennessee Tech in a losing effort, 14-19, before their historic season concluded against Central Florida, 12-21.
On the experience of playing at a large platform in Florida, a rarity for Western, junior quarterback Cody Chimienti viewed it as a learning tool, “I didn’t have super-high expectations being that none of us had ever been there before … but now that we’ve had a feel for the sort of competition there, we’re looking forward to returning.”
In the same way that the Wolves competed against bigger schools with a larger crop of athletes in and around the Washington-Pullman area, so was the case in Florida. But if anything, the teams in Florida were larger. Teams like the previous ones, Rutgers University and Loyola-Marymount are all division one schools, and this tournament had more of them.
Getting their first piece of the competition, Western struck with a rainbow pass for the beginning touchdown against Tennessee Tech. After trading scores, and with three minutes left in the second half, Tennessee scored the go-ahead touchdown to seal the game.
Versus Central Florida, Western again jumped out early, scoring a touchdown on the first drive. After scoring again late in the second half on an 80-yard play, they couldn’t adjust to the unique attacking offense of UCF, going down.

“For our first time as a team,” said Chimienti, “for Western, going to Pullman and Florida, I think it was a pretty big accomplishment.”
Speaking on the significance of the season and on the accomplishment, Chimienti spoke optimistically for the future commenting “I think it’s going to open doors for the future and potential athletes to want to come join us.”

 

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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