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Wednesday,
March 11,1998
Tournament: Players happy despite losses
■Continued from page 1
said Head Coach Karen Twain. “We were okay but in the second
half we started playing a way that we really hadn’t played all sea
son which was a fear of losing. Here we had just lost the night
before and I think that the girls were scared at the end rather than
playing as the aggressor. We made some crucial mistakes at the
very end of the game that I don’t thi n k we would have made if we
had been more focused.”
With seven seconds remaining, Sophomore Lauren Mohan and
South Puget Sound’s Linnaea Jablonski collided while going for
the ball. Mohan was called for the foul, sending the Clippers to the
line with a chance to take the lead.
The next series of events was a bit controversial.
After the two players collided, Jablonski claimed that she had
gotten hurt on the play and that she was unable to shoot her free
throws. In such a case, that player is substituted out for one of her
teammates on the bench.
South Puget Sound Head Coach Bill Mendelson then entered
in Nicole Sharp, a reserve guard, to shoot the two shots. Immedi
ately after Sharp made the first basket, Jablonski quickly moved
to the scorer’s table, apparently feeling better, to enter into the
game for Sharp;
After Coach Mendelson realized how the situation looked, he
quickly had Jablonski return to the bench and Sharp connected on
her final free throw.
With only seven seconds left, Coach Twain called a timeout to
discuss the team’s strategy but as time expired, Michelle
McKinney’s desperation shot bounced off the backboard and fell
out
The loss shocked the Cougars and the rest of the tournament’s
teams to see Clackamas, a perennial title contender being elimi
nated even before the final day of games were to be played.
“Wenatchee is a really good team,” said Twain. “There’s really
no shame in losing to a team like that I think the top three teams
here were us, Wenatchee and Skagit Valley. After losing that first
one, even though it was disappointing was alright because it came
to a good team.
“Our goal all year has been to win the championship,” added
Twain. “After losing that first game, you know that you’re not
going to win it It’s pretty difficult to get pumped up for that sec
ond game so I think we went into the game against South Puget
Sound a little deflated.”
“I’m pretty disappointed,” said Bean. “I don’t feel that we got
as far as we should have. But I still feel that the whole team stuck
together, had good attitudes and just had fun. I’m not too upset
about it because we had a great year.”
“Our performance in the tournament was disappointing,” noted
Twain, “but that doesn’t take away from our season. I’m trying to
focus on the three great months that we had prior to this week.
These girls did some pretty amazing things. This is a team that
faced some losses early on with Melissa Hollenbeck [knee injury]
and Krystal Nakamoto [grade ineligibility] but they really pulled
together and got some great leadership from our sophomores. A
Rachel Hudson, a freshman post player,
improved greatly throughout her first season as
a Cougar, according to her teammates.
Wednesday, March ’] 171998
number of freshmen stepped up as well.
“There were some kids that came to play
at this school that we didn’t know what to
expect. We knew that our sophomores would
do great but the freshmen we didn’t know
about. The last time that we had seen them
was in high school, some of them we’d never
seen at all so really we didn’t know what to
expect from some of them. A lot of them
stepped up and played very well. We just did
voting oil the team for most valuable, most
inspirational and most improved player and
everybody on the team got a vote in some
category. I think that talks about how well-
rounded this team really was.”
Against South Puget Sound, Robbie Nix
scored 30 points and pulled down 14rebounds
in the loss. Michelle McKinney also added
14; points and 11 rebounds while Lauren
Mohan collected 10 points and seven assists.
All three of these players will participate
in Sunday’s all-star game held at Chemeketa
inSalem.
‘We only have three kids on the team,” said
Twain. “But that’s pretty typical because you
can’t really have more than three. I think all
of these sophomores could have easily made
the team.”
Southern Division companion, the Mt
Hood Saints, continued their Cinderella-like
tun for a championship, making it to the title
game, Saturday night.
The Saints, fourth place finishers in the
Southern Division standings, defeated both
Clackamas and Umpqua in regional playoff
action to earn the #1 seed from the South last
week. They opened the tournament with wins
Sophomore Robbie Nix scored 10 points in the team's 83-66 loss
over the East’s #2 seed, Spokane, and the
to the Knights and 30 the following night in the Cougars' 79-77
Western Division champion Lower Colum
loss to the Clippers.
bia Red Devils?
On Saturday, the upstart Saints took on
women’s basketball powerhouse Skagit Valley College. The Car Division has shown through recent years, this new format could
dinals entered into the game with a perfect 31-0 record on the year greatly change the outcome.
and were prepared to lay to rest any doubts of their worth. Skagit
“If you look at the top four teams from the
Valley, the Northern Division’s champion, was the tournament’s South this year,” said newly-appointed Head Story and
favorite to win the title but was believed by many teams not to be Coach Jim Martineau, “ML Hood was the photos by
as strong as other schools because of the North being a tradition fourth place team in our region and they fin
John
ally weakerregion.
ished second in the tournament If we had
Thorbum
The game featured the top two point guards in the northwest played better, we probably would have won a
with Mt Hood’s Kellie Hedlund and Skagit Valley’s Sabrina few games, Chemeketa would have won a few and Umpqua might
Moses. Both Hedlund and Moses guarded each other throughout have won the whole thing. I hope that they change it to 16 teams.
the contest putting on a display of dribbling and passing.
It would benefit the South greatly.”
The Saints fought long and hard but came up short in the 81-63
Next year’s tournament is at Lane Community College ih.Eu-
loss. The Skagit Valley victory was the fourth NWAACC champi gene.
onship for the school in Mt. Vernon, WA in the last 10 years.
While many of the teams had already returned home before
Saturday’s final, Clackamas stayed to cheer on their friends from
Mt Hood. Before the game, Clackamas players borrowed the
Saints’ team shooting shirts to wear during the game to support
the school in nearby Gresham.
After the game, many of the Cougars consoled the Saints oh
their loss and congratulated them on their unbelievable winning
streak
‘Tm really happy for Mt Hood right now,” said Mohan. “They
just played awesome. It’s weird how things end up because they
were fourth in our division and now they made it all the way to the
championship game.”
After the team’s final game on Friday, Coach Twain announced
her resignation from the head coaching position.
Twain has been the acting vice principal at Tualatin High School
since the start of the 1997-98 school year and is still seeing pro
motions come her way. With the acceleration of her career in school
administration, she has little time for coaching. Her assistant, Jim
Martineau, takes oyer the head coaching position next year.”
While many of the Clackamas players were disappointed with
their losses, some are anxious to get back at it next season.
‘It’s frustrating finishing like this,” said Freshman Nicole
Hayden. “I want to start another season right now.”
Freshman Noelle Johnson shares her friend’s sentiments but
also knows what her body is telling her.
‘Tm pretty disappointed and I can’t wait till next season but I’m
kind of tired from basketball,” noted Johnson. “Give me about
eight months and then I’ll be ready to go again.”
The NWAACC is currently discussing the idea of changing the
tournament’s format from an eight-team format [currently used]
to a sixteen-team tournament. With the strength that the Southern
Freshman Melinda Freeman, a starter throughout
the season, returns next year to lead the Cougars.