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JAMESNIELSEN—HOUSTONCHRONICLE Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) topples over Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza (1) during the first half in Game 4of the Western Conference finals. ByKristieRieken APSportsWriter HOUSTON James Harden scored a playoff career-high 45 points and the Houston Rockets led from start to finish to avoid elimination in the Western Conference finals with a 128-115 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 on Mon- day night. The Rockets used a playoff record- tying, 45-point first quarter to build a big lead. They were up by 22 in the second quarter when Stephen Curry landed on his head in a nasty spill and missed about 12 minutes before returning. His first field goal after returning came on a 3-pointer that got Golden State within six points with less than 8 minutes remaining. But Harden, who had 17 points in the fourth quar- ter, scored the next seven points as part of 10 straight by Houston to push the lead to 114-98. Klay Thompson had 24 points and Curry added 23 for Golden State, which moved a win away from its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1975 after routing Houston 115-80 on Sat- urday night to take a 3-0 lead in the series. But the Warriors couldn't put the Rockets away and will try again at home in Game 5 on Wednesday night. Houston bounced back from a 3-1 deficit to the Clippers in the confer- ence semifinals. But they face a much bigger challenge in this series, as no team in NBA history has won a play- off series after trailing 3-0. Dwight Howard had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and received a flagrant 1 foul early in the third quarter af- NBA PLAYOFFS Rocketsstaveoffelimination Currytakesnastyfall,returnsinsecondhalf,can't help Warriors overcome deficit from first quarter ROCKETS128,WARRIORS115 Series: Warriors lead series 3-1. Up next: Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors, 6p.m. Wednesday, TV on ESPN. THESCORE GIANTS 8, BREWERS 4 Up next: San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers 5:10p.m. today, TV on CSN-BA. THESCORE By Andrew Baggarly Bay Area News Group MILWAUKEE It turned into a lovely Memorial Day afternoon here in America's Dairyland, so the Milwaukee Brewers decided to bask in the sun and retract the roof at Miller Park in the second inning. The San Francisco Giants only metaphorically tore the roof off in the sixth. They found their legs after a draining weekend in Colorado and an early-morning arrival in Milwaukee, racing around the bases on Hamilton City native Kyle Lohse, two relievers and a weak-armed Brewers outfield in a seven-run, 12-batter rally on their way to an 8-4 victory Monday. Nori Aoki reached base five times in his first game as a vis- BASEBALL Giants get rolling in 6th, beat Brewers ATHLETICS 4, TIGERS 0 Up next: Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics, 7:05p.m. today, TV on CSN-CA. THESCORE By Jimmy Durkin Bay Area News Group OAKLAND The Oakland A's sea- son finally has some signs of look- ing up, and Monday provided gen- tle reminders of the better days. Ken Korach's voice was back on the radio, Yoenis Cespedes roamed the Coliseum again, and the A's beat the Detroit Tigers 4-0 for their first three-game winning streak since August. Utility man Ben Zobrist was activated from the disabled list before Monday's game, and All- Star closer Sean Doolittle will re- join the team Tuesday to help bol- ster the bullpen. But for the first time all season, the A's didn't need their relievers. Jesse Hahn pitched Oakland's first complete game of the year. It BASEBALL Hahn pitches shutout, A's defeat Tigers President Barack Obama on Monday saluted Americans who died in battle, saying the country must "never stop trying to fully repay them" for their sacrifices, a day without U.S. forces engaged in a war. MEMORIAL DAY Obamapaystributeto fallen service members FULL STORY ON PAGE B4 By Aaron Williams Special to the Red Bluff Daily News REDDING Enterprise scored first, the Spartans scored often. The Red Bluff High School baseball team lived up to its top seed Saturday with a 9-1 Northern Section Division II win over the seventh-seeded Hornets at Shasta College. Lane Pritchard had a shaky first inning, allowing one run to Enterprise, but settled down to toss 6-plus innings of 1-run, nine- hit ball. He threw 28 of his 101 pitches in the first frame as En- terprise (15-14) got a leadoff sin- gle from Jacob Bowen, who came around to score on an RBI single from Will Asnicar. "That first inning was rough," Pritchard said. "I was sweating, I was hot. I don't know if I warmed up right, my arm wasn't feeling good, but as the game progressed I felt good and finished strong." But the Spartans (27-8) didn't have a team batting average above .300 for nothing and were able to get the run back in the bottom of the first as Pritchard led off with a walk and was plated by Walker Dodero's sacrifice fly to right. "That was huge for us," Spar- tans manager Ryland Sanders said. "Lane … did what he's sup- posed to do and Walker hit a nice sac fly that got us on the board to even things out. " And then Pritchard settled in, working a 1-2-3 second inning on four pitches. "I didn't need to say anything," Sanders said when asked if he said anything to Pritchard between in- nings. "Lane's a competitor and knows what he has to do. He just needed an inning to get used to the mound and let the adrenaline kind of going." And then the Spartans bats awoke in the third against Enter- prise starter Tyler Glassburn. Eric Schreter hit a one-out sin- BASEBALL SPARTANS BLOW OUT HORNETS FOR TITLE Pritchard overcomes shake first inning to pitch 6-plus innings of 1-run ball in Red Bluff's win Red Bluff's Lane Pritchard throws in the fi h inning of the Spartans' 9-1win Saturday over Enterprise in the Northern Section Division II baseball final. Pritchard threw 6-plus innings, allowing one run on nine hits. PHOTOS BY NOLAN WILLIAMS FOR THE DAILY NEWS The Red Bluff Spartans celebrate their 9-1win Saturday over Enterprise in the Northern Section Division II title game at Shasta College. "That first inning was rough. ... I don't know if I warmed up right, my arm wasn't feeling good, but as the game progressed I felt good and finished strong." – Red Bluff High pitcher Lane Pritchard. A tornado raged through a city on the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, destroying homes, flinging cars like matchsticks and ripping an infant from its mother's arms. At least 13 people were killed. SEVERE WEATHER Mexico twister kills 13; 12 missing in Texas FULL STORY ON PAGE B8 Mercy High School baseball players Richie Borges and Bryce Baer received Five Star All-League honors. The league MVP was Chester's Spencer Lee, and the coach of the year was Chester's Aaron Hardesty. FIVE STAR LEAGUE All-league baseball recipients announced Mercy High's Marissa Starman and Gillian Coelho received Five Star All-League honors. Los Molinos' Mariela Sanchez also received all-league hon- ors. League MVP was Redding Christian's Cassie Reeder. FIVE STAR LEAGUE All-league so ball recipients announced SPARTANS PAGE 2 A'S PAGE 2 GIANTS PAGE 2 WARRIORS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, May 26, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1