Sports
B1
Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
PHOTOS BY ANNA REED/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Lakin Susee, a Kennedy High School graduate and freshman on Chemeketa’s women’s basketball team this season, has made the transition to the college game look effortless.
Chemeketa’s Lakin Susee
goes from unknown to star
BILL POEHLER
STATESMAN JOURNAL
It wasn’t so much that Lakin Susee
was overlooked by college basketball
coaches in the recruiting process, it was
that she didn’t try to get their attention.
Even when she led Kennedy High
School’s girls basketball team to the 2016
Class 2A state championship, Susee
thought she was done playing the game
in which she had been a star.
But as a freshman on Chemeketa’s
women’s basketball team this season,
she has made the transition to the college
game look effortless, leading the team in
scoring at 17.4 points per game and aver-
aging 5.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists going
into Wednesday’s game against Clark.
That is remarkable considering she
was virtually unknown by college coach-
es at this point a year ago.
“From the time we talked to her,
watched her play, that was one of the
things also that kind of drew us to her is
her basketball IQ,” Chemeketa coach
Kevin McCarrell said. “I think the thing
that got her overlooked was her size and
that she was from a smaller school.
“That’s always one of the mysteries is
how the girls from the smaller schools
transition into the collegiate level.
Again, that’s where the roll of the dice
kind of happens. For us, it’s turned out
really well.”
Susee, a 5-foot-6 freshman guard
from nearby Mt. Angel, had talked to
some basketball coaches from small col-
leges in California, but decided she
would attend Western Oregon and not
play a sport in college.
She had been a successful high school
athlete by anyone’s standards – she was a
conference player of the year and first-
team all-state selection in basketball and
volleyball – and was fine with being done
with playing sports.
But McCarrell saw what Susee had
done as a basketball player and con-
tinued to work on her until she signed
with Chemeketa last spring.
“I’m really glad I did because I
couldn’t imagine doing anything else
right now,” Susee said. “I really enjoy
playing basketball here.”
Chemeketa has been fortunate to
have her.
When Susee scored 32 points in the
Storm’s season-opening 82-72 win
against Blue Mountain, there might have
been outsiders surprised that she would
assimilate to the college game that
quickly.
But those who knew her weren’t.
“I was surprised, but my teammates
set me up with really easy fast-break lay-
Lakin Susee, center, a Kennedy High School graduate, practices with her women’s basketball teammates at Chemeketa Community College in
Salem on Tuesday.
ups or open shots so it was everyone con-
tributing. In the flow of the game, it hap-
pens,” Susee said.
“I didn’t really expect to have that
many points, and I didn’t think I did.”
Susee is No. 11 in the Northwest Ath-
letic Conference in scoring and has
scored in double figures in all but one
game this season.
A dynamic perimeter player with the
ability to blow past defenders off the
dribble and range from the outside – she
is averaging 28 percent from 3-point
range and 78 percent from the free
throw line – she is a deceptive matchup
problem.
“You have to get out on her because
she’ll knock it down, but she can go by
you so fast and you won’t even know,”
said freshman Tori Swanson. “She has all
these amazing moves.”
Swanson was similarly overlooked as
a high school player, but for a different
reason.
Playing for South Salem’s two-time
Class 6A state championship teams, she
was a starter, but wasn’t overshadowed
by well-known as Division I bound play-
ers like Katie McWilliams, Jordan Wood-
vine and Evina Westbrook.
Now Swanson is averaging 12.3 points
and 4.0 rebounds per game for Chemeke-
ta and has become a vocal leader for the
team.
“She was overlooked,” McCarrell
said. “We went to watch her and do some
recruiting, we saw that the skill set was
there. It was just a matter of how was she
going to fit into our system, and would
she accept that role in our team.
“Her and Lakin are probably our two
strongest leaders on our team.”
Swanson admits that she had never
heard of Susee before being paired with
her at Chemeketa.
Most of Chemeketa’s opponents
hadn’t heard of her before she started
lighting up scoreboards for the Storm,
either.
She played AAU basketball in her
youth, but once she stopped when she
started high school.
Now options are opening up for Susee
to play four-year college basketball.
“I’m enjoying playing here so I can
imagine that playing somewhere else
two years later would also be fun for
me,” Susee said. “How I see is it could
help me, financially, too, if I can get
scholarships that way.
“Doing something you love and get-
ting school paid for seems like a major
bonus.”
Contact Bill Poehler at bpoeh-
ler@StatesmanJournal.com; and follow
him on Twitter @bpoehler