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Sports 1B Thursday March 4, 2010 Thursday Los Molinos Glenn Cox Baseball Tournament Baseball — Corning at Willows, 3:30 p.m. Baseball — Red Bluff at NorCal Tourney, vs Yreka, 5:30 p.m. Softball — Corning at Willows, 3:30 p.m. Tennis — Red Bluff at Shasta, 3 p.m. NBA — Lakers at Heat, 5:15 p.m., TNT Mercy headed to final By RICH GREENE DN Staff Report The Mery Warriors may have took the longest roads to get there, but they are headed to Friday's Division VI boys bas- ketball championship following a 54-51 win over Hayfork. The two-hour road trip to Hayfork was preceded by an even longer, four and-a-half hour trip to Loyalton in the quarterfinals and both times the Warriors needed a come-from-behind victory to advance. On Tuesday night, Mercy found itself trailing 21-10 after the first period. The Warrior defensive effort was better in the second, but Mercy still trailed by 10 points at halftime. But an 8-0 run to start the second half sparked by Ali Syed helped the Warriors pull back into the game. Syed had nine of his 15 points in the third quarter and Mercy outscored Hay- fork 19-10. "(We) came out in the third quarter with a lot more focus and intensity on both ends of the floor — more passing and shar- ing the ball on offense and playing much better D," coach Steve Shellabarger said. The Warriors closed out the game with a 12-8 fourth quarter to earn their first trip to a Northern Section final since they won the Division-V championship in 2000. Jeremie Jones also had 15 points for the Warriors and pulled down 10 rebounds and had a block. Shellabarger said Ryan Ward had his best game of the season especially on defense and rebound- ing. He finished with five points and seven board. Cameron Vietti made four steals. Mercy finished the regular sea- son with a 13-12 record and may have cost itself a first-round bye after losing its last two games of the season. The Warriors knocked off Butte Valley at home in the first round and despite being the No. 5 seed with be the higher seed at Friday's championship game against the seventh seeded Maxwell Panthers, who are 12-15. The game will be played at Chico State University at 4:15 p.m. Friday. Friday's Division VI basketball final #7 Maxwell vs. #5 Mercy At Chico State Boys basketball CIF Northern Section Division VI championship #7 Maxwell Panthers: 12-15; 5-5, tied for third in North Valley League #5 Mercy Warriors 15- 12; 1-5, tied for third in Tri- Cities League Directions: To get to the California State University, Chico ath- letic complex take 99 South to exit 386 and turn right onto East 1st Avenue. A mile down turn left at Esplanade then take the first fight onto West Sacramen- to Avenue and then the first left onto Warner Street. The game will be played at the Art Acker Gymnasium. Tickets: If you've come this far you should probably buy a ticket. Students K-8 are $5, students with an ASB card and senior citizens are $6 and adults are $8. Similar opponents: The schools haven't met in quite awhile, but this sea- son they both played Champion Christian, Dunsmuir, Hayfork, Liberty Christian, Westwood and Williams. Maxwell is 4-4 in those games. Mercy is 6-2. Players to watch: Maxwell — #20 Tyler Wells, #32 Tyler Swanson, #22 Dylan Dewit Mercy — #3 Aaron Gash, #15 Ryan Ward, #21 Jere- mie Jones, #22 Ali Syed, #23 Cameron Vietti, #24 Mitchell Lopez, #32 Bo Wang, #33 Jarrett Gash, #35 Royce Crane, #44 Michael Wang Notes: Maxwell was in D-V last season and was knocked out in the first round...this season they beat Happy Camp 60-46, Big Valley 69-68 and finally Dun- smuir 71-54 in the semifinals...Hayfork ended the year with a loss to Hayfork, the same team the Warriors beat to reach the final...Mercy is riding its third three-game win-streak of the season, they have to have a four-game win streak. State brackets set for local wrestlers By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor There's no such thing as an easy draw at the state wrestling championships, so it should not have come as a surprise to the three local wrestlers headed to Bakersfield on Friday they have a tough road ahead of them. Red Bluff wrestlers Sultan Beardsley and Dillon Reid are returning to the state championships and have that valuable experience on their side. Beardsley will open with Thousand Oaks senior Behdod Katebian in the 130-pound bracket. The winner of that match draws sophomore Austin Bran- dum from Del Oro. After battling the third ranked wrestler in the state Foothill's Travis Gallegos over the past three weeks, Reid is likely headed toward a second round showdown with the state's No. 2 wrestler, Del Oro's Jesse Stafford. Corning senior Thomas Marshall faces Mcnair junior Malique Micenheimer in the first round of the 215-pound division. The winner will draw Shafter's Wyatt Silsco. Should Marshall advance beyond that, the No. 2 wrestler in the stat TJ Felix will likely be waiting. PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) — Tim Lincecum abandoned the windup and threw out of the stretch hoping that he would throw more strikes. It didn't work. The two-time Cy Young winner lasted just one inning in his spring debut, but the San Francisco Giants beat the Seattle Mariners 8-7 in 10 innings Wednesday. ''I had been struggling out of the windup,'' he said. ''So I told ''Rags (pitching coach Dave Righetti) that I was going to throw from the stretch more, that I could throw more strikes.'' Lincecum was expected to throw two innings. He worked only the 29-pitch first, giving up two hits and three runs. The Giants went up 3-0 in the top of the first. In the bottom half, Ichiro Suzuki reached on an error by first baseman Aubrey Huff. Lincecum then walked suc- cessive hitters before Ken Griffey Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to right. Jose Lopez and Casey Kotchman followed with run-scoring singles to right to make it 3-all. Lincecum said he was a little more ''amped up'' than usual. He was even more amped up after he finished. Lincecum, who grew up in Seattle, had his interview interrupted by a surprise vis- itor. Griffey, walking back to the Mariners' clubhouse after the third inning, wan- dered over. ''Lincy, what's up,'' Grif- fey said. ''Just wanted to say hi.'' After the brief meeting, Lincecum was clearly affected. ''Wow, he just came over here. What were we talking about?'' Lincecum said. ''I followed him. I'm a Seattle native, so getting to watch him do his thing, actually all those guys — (Jay) Buhner, (Joey) Cora was awesome. Just to have a guy like that come over, it caught me off guard. ''First time to face him, I don't know what to say,'' Lincecum continued. ''It's like Randy Johnson last year, I got to play with him and watch him at the same time, and got to do the same thing with Omar (Vizquel) a couple of years ago. I don't know, maybe there's a cou- ple more Mariners on the way.'' Conor Gillaspie's base- loaded single to left drove in the winning run for the Giants in the 10th. The Mariners, down 7-5 in the ninth, scored a run on Dustin Ackley's one-out infield groundout. Ackley was the team's first pick (second overall) in last June's draft. Jack Hannahan followed with an infield single to tie Giants win spring opener, but Lincecum struggles MNG photo Aubrey Huff watches his home run,Wednesday. Little League searching for want-to-be umpires Ever want to be an umpire? Now is your chance. An umpiring clinic will be held today at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m. at Jackson Heights major league field to train umpires for the major league levels of Lit- tle League baseball and softball. The league is looking for adults 21-and-over who would like to work as an umpire this season. Umpires make between $18 to $25 per game and should receive around two or three games a week. For more information call Troy at 228-2375. See GIANTS, page 2B Warriors can't fend off the Magic ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Dwight Howard had 28 points and 12 rebounds, and the Orlan- do Magic cruised to a 117-90 victory over the undermanned Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. Rashard Lewis added 17 points, and Vince Carter finished with 15 points to help the Magic win for the fifth time in six games and keep a tight grip on the Eastern Con- ference's No. 2 playoff seed. They lead Atlanta by two games. C.J. Watson had 18 points, and Anthony Mor- row had 16 points for an injured Warriors team that dressed the NBA mini- mum eight players. And that came after they signed Development League player Reggie Williams a day earlier, the fourth former player from the NBA's version of the minors on Golden State's active roster. That's what happens with a lineup that reads more like a medical chart. Golden State was with- out leading scorer Monta Ellis (strained lower back), center Andris Biedrins (sports hernia), Corey Maggette (strained left hamstring) and Vladimir Radmanovic (sore right Achilles') among others. It was the 35th starting lineup of the season for the Warriors, the same one they used in a last- second loss at Miami on Tuesday night, prompting coach Don Nelson to joke before Wednesday's game that he's the ''D-League Coach of the Year.'' Carter helped the Magic pull away with nine points in a 26-8 run in the second quarter — including a pair of left- handed jumpers for three- point plays over Stephen Curry — to give Orlando a 64-45 halftime lead. The Magic scored the first 10 points of the sec- ond half behind 3-point- ers by Lewis and Jameer Nelson, and eventually settled into a 30-point lead. Then things really turned into a highlight session. Howard led one fast- break and dished to Matt Barnes for a layup, with Orlando's center sticking his tongue out laughing. Howard also blocked one shot so far it started a break for J.J. Redick. And Howard added a hard dunk — even for him — that sent the ball bouncing off the floor and into the stands. Not even the up-and- down Warriors had the energy to come back in this one. Curry, one of the lead- ing Rookie of the Year candidates, struggled to find his groove. He had just nine points and seven assists — most with the game well decided — as the Warriors moved 26 games under .500, good for the second-worst record in the Western Conference. Golden State was even forced to go the last 7:06 with just seven players after Chris Hunter fouled out. MCT photo The Warriors' Ronny Turiaf battles for the ball with the Magic's Brandon Bass and Marcin Gortat, Thursday night in Orlando.