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Friday Boys Hoops — Corning at West Valley, 7:30 p.m. Boys Hoops — Los Molinos at Esparto, 7:30 p.m. Boys Hoops — Red Bluff at Lassen, 7:30 p.m. Girls Hoops — Los Molinos at Esparto, 6 p.m. Girls Hoops — West Valley at Corning, 7:30 p.m. NBA — Spurs at Kings, 7 p.m., CSNC Scoreboards and standings As far as scoreboards and standings go — this hasn’t been Red Bluff High School’s year. There’s been basketball results that resemble football scores and football scores that seem like basketball results. Pretty sure once or twice the soccer team even outscored the football team. Painfully, even games against Las Plumas are no longer give mes. Sports 1B Lassen beats Lady Spartans Friday February 4, 2011 If high school sports were solely about scoreboards and standings there would be plenty of reason for concern. Luckily, they’re not. On Wednesday, as the Foothill Cougars were pum- meling the Spartan boys basketball team, Red Bluff’s Jonah McInnis scored a seemingly meaningless basket to put the score at 65-19. Rich Greene A cheer came from the student section. It wasn’t sarcastic. It was a cheer. It was as heartfelt as if the score was 2-0. It was a cheer from friends who care about Jonah and not about scoreboards and standings. As far as scoreboards and standings go there’s been a lot of losing this year at Red Bluff High School. Among the athletes trying to buck that trend is Dil- lon Reid. Reid still suffered the wrath of losing like everyone else as part of the Spartans’ 1-9 football team, but once the calendar flipped and wrestling started — things turned a lot brighter for the senior. Reid is hoping to accomplish a rare feat in the com- ing weeks — to qualify for the state wrestling cham- pionships all four years of school. Ranked fourth in the state at his weight class, Reid began his wrestling year winning match after match. The kid couldn’t lose. Then two weeks ago the Spartans headed to the Tim Brown Memorial tournament in Sacramento and faced some stiff competition. Reid suffered his first loss of the year. The next week I ran into his mother. She said as much as she loves her son and is always pulling for him, in a way she was kind of glad he lost. She thought the loss would help him in the long run. There can be benefits to losing. Dillon’s mom thinks so. So do most coaches. Although I’m sure none would wish to the extent the Spartans have seen this school year. But if you’re going to find out that not everything goes your way and all of the other lessons that come with taking a thumping — I can’t think of a better place to learn that than on a field or in a gym. Outside of those places they don’t use scoreboards and standings. Outside of sports, we all walk around without any realization of what our wining percentage is in life. Our losses don’t end up in print, but they linger a lot longer. Unfortunately, a 68-19 loss won’t be the worst thing that happens to Jonah and his friends. There’s going to be days that leave even larger lumps in their hearts. Wednesday night’s loss will help a little when those tough times come. On Thursday, the Spartans woke up and realized there’s another game to play. That’s the nice part of high school sports. All of those scoreboards and standings don’t matter much in the larger scheme of things. After the season is over, after the student-athletes have graduated, the only scoreboards and standings that matter are the ones they create. ******************** I’d like to hand out a couple of quick “Nice Jobs.” The first is to Red Bluff Union High School and its wrestling program for staging the Tehama County Shootout tournament last weekend. That was a classy act to help out Corning High, which lost it’s tournament for one year. Punishing high school sports programs can be rather tricky. The Corning seniors who lost a chance to compete at a tournament at their own school had nothing to do with the violations that led to the Corning Invitational being suspended. But in reality they were probably the ones who ended up being punished the most. The second “Nice Job” actually goes to Corning High School. At the most recent football playoff meeting the school suggested a playoff system that meets a rather large criteria missing from the current system — it makes sense. Teams would be rewarded for what they do on the field. Let’s hope the rest of the Northern Section takes the time to talk about the proposal. In the minutes of the meeting, it was decided to table playoff discussion until after league realignment if finalized as they didn’t want to put the cart before the horse. Perhaps, part of the problem is these two issues are being separated. Daily News Sports Editor Rich Greene realizes it’s Friday and not Tuesday. Some additional responsibil- ities at the newspaper has caused him to slide this green box down a few days in the old work week for the time being. He can still be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109 or by sports@redbluffdailynews.com. e-mail at WRESTLING Central Valley 6 Corning 73 The Cardinals cruised by an inexperienced Central Valley team 73-6, Wednes- day, to clinch a share of the Northern Athletic League wrestling title. Matt Boles needed 44 seconds for a pin of Dakota Allen at 137 pounds. Martin Solano (114) earned a fall over Jayce Wells in 54 seconds. David Eson (127) pinned Razi Lovett in 1:07. Noah Hall won his heavyweight match by pin in 1:17 over Bryce Stevens. By RICHGREENE DN Sports Editor Lassen had a bit too much offensive firepower in the paint for Red Bluff, Thursday, in a 68-51 Lady Grizzlies win. Sierra Hicks led Lassen with 11 rebounds and 21 points, 10 coming in the third quarter as the Grizzlies broke open the game. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Red Bluff’s Kaitlann Weber puts up an off balance shot after being fouled,Thursday night. GIRLS HOOPS Lassen 68 Red Bluff 51 Red Bluff had closed the score to 37-34 in the opening seconds of the second half after a five-point trip down the floor. Morgan Weaver hit a jumper as Lassen was called for a pushing foul. That gave the ball back to Red Bluff and Roxy Luppino nailed a 3-pointer to pull Red Bluff within three. The momentum wouldn’t last for long. Around the three minute mark of the third quarter Natalie Yonan drilled home a 3-pointer for Lassen then Haylee Shaffer converted an and-one bucket and free throw and Lassen NBA All-Star Game Williams of Utah and Russell West- brook of Oklahoma City, who joins Griffin as the lone first-time selec- tions. fin is going to his first All-Star game, and Kevin Garnett matched an NBA record Thursday with his 14th straight selection as one of a record- tying four Boston Celtics headed for the midseason event. Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will accompany Garnett, who equaled Jerry West, Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone for the most con- secutive selections. The Celtics joined the 2006 Detroit Pistons as the only teams to have four players picked as reserves by the coaches. Griffin, the Rookie of the Year favorite of the Clippers, will become the first rookie All-Star since Yao Ming in 2003. Joining Griffin on the Western Conference team for the Feb. 20 game at Staples Center were Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili of the NBA-leading Spurs; forwards Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and Pau Gasol of the Lakers; and guards Deron Chris Bosh will go to Los Angeles with Miami teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who were elected as starters. The other East reserves picked were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Al Horford. The reserves were selected in vot- ing by the head coaches in each con- ference, who had to vote for two for- wards, two guards, a center and two players regardless of position. They went for the winning teams in the East, whose reserves are repre- sented by just three teams. ‘‘There hasn’t been too many times where you’ve had this kind of competition at the top of the Eastern Conference with such good teams,’’ Wade said. ‘‘So looking at the All- Star team, you understand that most guys are going to be from a few teams. That’s how it should be in the Eastern Conference. The Western Conference is a different argument.’’ The voting was much more diffi- boosted their lead to 50-38. Red Bluff wouldn’t get back into the game and Lassen cruised from there. Cori Schatz had 12 points off the bench to lead the Lady Spartans. Kaitlann Weber had an 11-point outburst in the second quarter to help pull the Lady Spartans back within striking distance. Weaver finished with nine points. Yonan hit three 3-pointers for Lassen and finished with 14 points. Ashley Wilson added 12 points. Red Bluff had a strong effort, but in the end dropped their ninth consecutive game. Griffin, record-tying 4 Celtics picked as reserves NEW YORK (AP) — Blake Grif- cult in the West, where coaches bypassed the likes of forwards Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Ran- dolph and Lamar Odom. ‘‘It was difficult,’’ said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who will coach the West team. ‘‘When we sat down, there were a lot of great names to choose from. At every position, you leave someone out.’’ Tony Parker missed out despite being the second-leading scorer for the Spurs, who entered Thursday’s game against the Lakers at 40-8. Vet- eran Steve Nash of the Suns and the Warriors’ Monta Ellis, the league’s sixth-leading scorer, also fell short. ‘‘I think every year it’s hard for point guards to make it, because there are so many great point guards in this league, especially in the West,’’ Williams said. ‘‘There are always young guys that are coming into the league and it’s going to continue to be a fight every year. That’s another rea- son I feel so honored.’’ The starters were chosen by fan See NBA, page 2B Tehama Tracker At 191 pounds Daniel Welborn pinned Kodi Knox in 2:41. Calvin Meister beat Der- rick King at 162 pounds by fall in 3:23. Raul Espinoza pinned Chad Christie at 154 pounds in 3:29. At 132 pounds Sean Lowe pinned Jason Young in 4:43. Nate Fultz earned a major decision 23-10 over Hunter Fallis at 121 pounds. Jose Solano defeated Shane Dante 8-6 at 147 pounds. Oscar Torres (105), Quentin McCormick (173) and Erik Miranda (217) won by forfeit. Parker Jones had Central Valley’s only win, by pin- ning Franky Maaele in 1:20 at 142 pounds. While I'm happy that we clinched at least a share of the league title, we can't be satisfied,” Corning coach Cort Mitchell said. “Anderson and West Val- ley are going to show up at the league tournament next week convinced that they can win the tournament and be co-champs with us. We'll have to wrestle our best tournament of the year to win and be the sole champi- ons. If we go in thinking all we have to do is show up to win, then we'll be sharing our title with someone else.” MEDIA A new sports talk radio show dedicated to local action debuts tonight on KBLF-AM 1490 at 6 p.m. Northstate Sports Weekly will focus on the local sports scene with interviews with athletes, coaches, media and direc- tors of sports throughout Tehama, Shasta and Butte Counties. The hour-long pro- gram will be hosted by Paul Vietti. Episodes can also be heard online at trophytra- ditions.com.