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StaffReports MercyHighSchoolrecently held its winter sports awards banquet, where athletes and coaches from junior varsity boys and girls basketball, var- sity boys and girls basketball, varsity soccer and cheer cel- ebrated with a tri-tip dinner. Athletes were honored both with team and league awards. The winners are: SOCCER MVP, all-league and all-star Noe Espinoza, MIP Jack Terrell, Coach of the Year Merced Najera. JV BOYS BASKETBALL MVP Ricky Ornelas, MIP Nicholas Keane. JV GIRLS BASKETBALL MVP Julia O'Neal, MIP Baljot Cha- tha. CHEER MVP Emilia Gray, MIP Tatiana Addonizio. VARSITY GIRLS BASKETBALL MVP Cheyanne Johnson and Tasha Pimentel, MIP Minju Ahn, all-league Laura Ke- ane and Pimentel, all-league honorable mention Madeline Flynn and Johnson. VARSITY BOYS BASKETBALL MVP Teddy Ranberg and Nick Ornelas, MIP Nate Ben- nett, all-league Ranberg and Ornelas, all-league honorable mention Travis Gorden and Richie Borges. Athletes, coaches honored at dinner for winter sports teams MERCY WARRIORS Pictured,toprow from le , are Minju Ahn, Nate Bennett, Travis Gorden, Richie Borges, Teddy Ranberg and Ricky Ornelas; middle row from le , Cheyanne Johnson, Julia O'Neal, Nicholas Keane, Emilia Gray and Nick Ornelas; bottom row from le , Tasha Pimentel, Baljot Chatha, Tatiana Addonizio, Jack Terrell and Noe Espinoza. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. The Ivy League has produced its share of surprise winners in the NCAA Tournament. It can add Yale to that list of bracket spoilers. Makai Mason had a career- high 31 points, including six of Yale's final nine points, and the No. 12 seed Bulldogs held on to upset No. 5 seed Baylor 79-75 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. Yale (23-6) earns its first NCAA Tournament victory. It comes in its first appearance since 1962. "This was bigger than us, and we wanted to do it for all the Yale faithful out there," said se- nior Justin Sears. ""It's great right now. I don't think it's re- ally hit us how big this is yet." Afterward, the Bulldogs cele- brated like a team that had been waiting 54 years to play in the big dance. When the final horn sounded, coach James Jones walked across the floor with his arms raised. Stopping in front a cheering throng of Yale fans, he slammed both hands down on the scorer's table before again lifting his arms high. Taurean Prince led Baylor (22- 12) with 28 points. Johnathan Motley finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. DUKE 93, UNC WILMINGTON 85 Marshall Plumlee ditched the mask guarding his broken nose and responded by scoring a ca- reer-high 23 points to lead de- fending national champion Duke past UNC Wilmington. Plumlee had 10 of his points and two blocks as the Blue Dev- ils stepped up the defensive pressure early in the second half to build a lead after trailing at the break. Duke (24-10), seeded fourth in the West, will next play Yale. UNCW (25-8), seeded 13th, was in it until the closing moments after Plumlee and Matt Jones fouled out. Craig Ponder led UNCW with 22 points. Chris Flemmings had 18, Denzel Ingram 17 and C.J. Bryce 16. MidwestRegion LITTLE ROCK 85, PURDUE 83 (2OT) Little Rock is advanc- NCAA MEN'S TOURNAMENT ROUNDUP YaleupsetsBaylorto post1sttourneywin LittleRockralliestobeatPurdueindouble overtime for another shocker in first round PHOTOS BY CHARLES KRUPA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Yale guard Makai Mason (11) hits the floor while chasing the ball as Baylor guard Jake Lindsey (3) falls on him in the second half Thursday during the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Providence, R.I. Yale forward Justin Sears (22) slams a dunk as he gets past Baylor forward Taurean Prince (21) in the second half Thursday in Providence, R.I. By Jimmy Durkin Bay Area News Group STANFORD The San Francisco 49ers have been mostly inac- tive in free agency despite their abundance of salary cap space — Thursday's signing of offensive lineman Zach Beadles excluded. Coach Chip Kelly explained that most of it comes down to the value of the available players. "You're always looking to im- prove your roster," Kelly said while speaking after Stanford's pro day. "There's pay for play sit- uations that you take into con- sideration. 'Are we going to take this player and pay him more than anybody on our team? And is that worth (more) than any- body on our current team?' We also have to kind of look at that." One player the 49ers showed interest in was cornerback Sean Smith, who signed with the Raid- 49ERS Kelly looks at value of free agents before making deals By Carl Steward Bay Area News Group MESA, ARIZ. One can certainly understand why Jed Lowrie wasn't all that thrilled back in November when he learned the Houston Astros had traded him back to Oakland. Before last season, Lowrie signed a three-year contract to play for a very good Houston team, settled himself and his family into a new house, and he thought he'd be there for awhile. A nasty thumb injury that cost him three months of the 2015 season aside, he couldn't have asked for a much better situation. Then, after finally wrapping his head around the trade that returned him to the Bay Area, Lowrie walked into an A's club- house where there were only seven players left that he knew from the back-to-back Ameri- can League West title teams on which he played. That was a bit of a shock, too. "It was like coming to a new team, but still having some guys A'S SPRING TRAINING Lowrie adjusts to trade, new position with Oakland again Staff Reports RED BLUFF The Red Bluff Spar- tans baseball team took its second home win of the season Wednes- day with an 11-0 shutout of the Shasta Wolves. Kolby Button got the win, going four innings and giving up two hits, three walks and four strike- outs. Even Tanner added two strikeouts in a shutout inning to close out the win. Wes Clawson led the Spartans, going 2 for 2 at the plate with three RBIs. He was hit by a pitch, walked and stole a base. Tanner Tweedt had two RBIs on two walks; Button went 2 for 3 and stole two bags; Bryce Sin- clair went 2 for 2 with two runs, a walk and an RBI and Eric Spen- cer went 2 for 3 with two runs. The Spartans (2-0 overall, 1-0 league) are scheduled to face the Wolves (2-3 overall, 0-1 league) at 4 p.m. today in Redding. BURNEY 4, WARRIORS 2 The Mercy Warriors baseball team lost at home Tuesday to the Bur- ney Raiders 4-2 and is still search- ing for its first win of the young season. Kavin McClellan was named player of the game for the War- riors, with a two-run homer in the third for Mercy's only runs. He was 1 for 3 on the night. Jonathan Ross took the loss for the Warriors, pitching 4 1/3 innings and giving up four runs, two earned, on five hits and four walks. He recorded six strike- outs. Richie Borges closed out the game with 2 2/3 shutout innings and gave up two walks and got six strikeouts. Bryce Bear and Borges also re- corded hits for the Warriors. The Warriors (0-3 overall, 0-0 league) are scheduled to face the Greenville Indians (0-0) at 4 p.m. Monday at Diamond Park in Red Bluff. BURNEY15,LADYWARRIORS4 The Mercy Lady Warriors fell Tuesday to the Burney Lady Raiders soft- ball team 15-4 at home. Gillian Coelho was named player of the game. Freshman Aubrey Bell had two RBIs and went 1 for 2 with a base on balls. Tasha Pimental had a hit and scored for the Warriors and Selena Dobson, Jessi Chatha and Emilia Gray each scored. Annie Feser, Chatha and Gray each had a walk. Maggie Sheppard took the loss on the mound. The Lady Warriors (0-2 over- all, 0-0 league) were scheduled to host the University Prep Pan- thers (0-3 overall, 0-0 league) on Thursday. BASEBALL Spartans shut out Shasta at home Warriors boys, girls both fall to Burney 49ERS PAGE 2 A'S PAGE 2 NCAA PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, March 18, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1