Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1988)
- Men’s Basketball OSi Wrestling ■s ; Results • RoyeeKiscr, Schedules ■ , - page A4 ■ SPORTS INSERT Women make history, end season undefeated by Christopher Curran Design/Sports Editor > ? £ | o I Never before in the history of the Southern Division of the NWAACC has a team gone undefeated in divisional competi tion. ' This year’s Clackamas women’s basketball team chang ed all that. Their possession of a 12-0 division record gave them that honor. By compiling that record, they consequently won the Southern Division and ensured themselves a position in the eight team NWAACC championship tour nament March 3-5. The Cougars will have to go up against Linn-Benton this Friday at 9 p.m. at Chemeketa Com munity College. Two . hours earlier Mt. Hood will contend with Umpqua. The winners of each game will play at 7:30 Satur- day night to determine the number one and two seedings. • The winner of the mini tourna- ment will be the number one seed and the loser of Saturday night’s game will become the number two seed, unless Clackamas fails to advance after their Friday con test, in which case, they would become the number two seed, and Saturday night’s loser would meet the end of the season. “We’re working in practice,’’ commented Cougar coach Phil Garver. “We’ve had a couple weeks off, but we’re keeping it up.” In the divisional standings for the year, the Cougars were a full three games ahead of second place Umpqua, who claimed a 8-3 mark. Mt. Hood and Linn- Benton ended their league seasons tied for third with records of 6-6. They played a tiebreaker game and Mt. Hood was vic torious, therefore, they captured third place and Linn-Benton settl ed for fourth. Clackamas has everything go ing for them as they enter post season play. Their season record is among the best in the NWAACC and no team of the 27 teams in the region won all of their divisional games. In addi tion to that the Cougars are in jury free. Everyone is healthy and ready to play. Clackamas started off their 1987-88 season with an 86-81 triumph over Los Medenos in the College of the Redwoods Tour nament in California. The next three games saw the Cougars slip to a 1-3 record and they split their next two contests to go to 2-4 and signs of last year became familiar again. But then, something happen ed. The team came together, played in sine, and have since col lected 19 consecutive victories and show no signs of stopping. The major factor is the play of freshman guard Angela Hewlett, who led Clackamas in both points at 16.6 per game, and assists with 234, 190 more than Anna Schlegelmilch's 44, which was the team’s second highest. Centers Leslie Hughes and Mitzi Finn combined for 463 of Clackamas’ 1076 rebounds as the Cougars outrebounded their op ponents by five per game this season. The real Cougar strength, however, is depth. Eight of the 13 Qackamas players have played in every game and the other five have missed a combined 23 games. Garver is not afraid to look to his bench when he needs to. That is what championship teams must be able to do. Aggressive coaching, talent work for Garver by Michael L. Walker Staff Writer Coach Phil Garver is proving again this year that the Clackamas women’s basketball team are championship material. Having won their last two games, the Cougars are practically undefeated with only four losses overall this season. Said Garver, “Everyone’s playing real good basketball. We’re really at the top of our game. I hope we can carry it on into the play offs.” Their record this year is an unbelieveable 12 wins and 0 losses in league games. This marks Garver’s seventh winning season, which includes two regional championship titles. As far as this season is concerned Garver said, “We’ve pretty much wrapped up the championship for this season. We finished up Saturday night (Feb. 13) with a 12 and 0 record in league. That’s the best I’ve had. My previous best was 11 and 1.” Garver feels that winning seasons are the result of talent exhibited by the women. “Talent is definitely going to win games for you. You’ve got to have talented players to play basketball. We’ve been a pretty good team unit this year -especially with the talent and the defense. The defense has won a lot of games for us. The girls have been playing real well together.” Garver described his style of coaching as “pretty aggressive.” “I don’t expect a lot of mistakes because the players are putting in two to three hours of practice everyday. Mentally being ready is a big peeve of my game. A lot of kids aren’t mentally ready.” Garver explained mentally being ready as, “...staying) on top of your game, be(ing) aware of what’s going on offensively and defensively. A lot of girls stop paying attention. It tends to get them in trouble. I’ve had to cut more and more girls every year.” Garver is what has been notoriously coined “a tough coach.” “I try to stay on top every year and get out and recruit. Recruiting is a big part of the game. I’ve always been a tough recruiter.” Garver went to Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. His team was the seasonal champs when he was a senior. He received a scholarship to come out west and play basketball at Warner Pacific College here in Oregon. His team was in the NAIA play offs twice in his four years at the college. When asked about a favorite game played he said, “It was the homecoming game in 1978. We were playing against Lewis & Clark. I had 14 points, 10 boards (rebounds) and three assists. I played a very good game that day.” Garver once had aspirations of being a professional player, however, things didn’t work out. “I had an opportunity to go over to Germany and possibly play. But if I couldn’t play in the NBA I had no ambition.” Garver came to Clackamas after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education. “I came as an assistant coach at Clackamas for my first two years. In my third year I was co-coach with Nancy Michaels. Then she resigned in 1983 and started coaching tennis. Then they gave me the basketball team.” “I’ve always wanted to be a coach,” he told. “My whole thing is coaching basketball. I’ve played basketball all my life. That was my ambition: to be a basketball coach.” As for the future: “I want to continue and go on to bigger and better coaching jobs. But it takes time. If something comes up, it’ll come up I feel.” How do the other teams look in the upcoming NWAACC (Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges) tournament? Garver replied, “We’re playing tough teams in the play offs. Highline (north division,) Green River and Qark (both tied for western division.) Spokane and Wenatchee are tied in the eastern Washington division.” Overall Garver says, “I'm happy as can be, being at the top of the league with 12 and 0. As far as my knowledge, it has never been done in the history of Oregon community colleges.” photo by Roger Hancock Phil Garver “happy as can be” with winning season.