WedNEsdAy, M arc I h 15, 2002
The CI ac I camas P rínt
Basketball Championships
ELENA BORYSKA
Sports Editor
Going into the NWAACC Champi
onship tournament-, the Cougar
women’s basketball team was rolling.
They were holding a 12-2 league record
and a 24-4 record overall, were the co
champions of the Southern Region
and had an eight game winning streak
that began all the way back at the end
of January. But as they headed up to
the NWAACC tournament in
Kennewick, Wash., the Cougar women
melted down into a team that couldn’t
execute plays and was unable to make
easy shots.
“Just coming up here and playing
the way we did was very, very disap
pointing. Somewhere along the way
between Oregon City and Kennewick,
we lost our confidence. We just
weren’t the same team,” Head Coach
Jim Martineau said. “I don’t think we
played well all week long. I was very
disappointed about that.”
This drastic change from playing like
the NBA’sLA Lakers to theLA Clip
pers knocked the women out of any
chance at a high placing early on, and
landed them at the eighth-place spot
out of the sixteen women’s teams at
the tournament.
They went2-2forthe week, and ac
ceding to Martineau, were pretty lucky
to have finished with even those two
wins.
Clackamas started their run in the
tournament on Friday, March 8, by fac
ing the Clark Penguins, a tough team
that beat the Cougars twice earlier in
the season. To begin the game, the
Cougars didn’t look their best, allow
ing Clark to jump ahead early on. Go
ing into the half, Clark led 37-24. But
the Cougars didn’t roll over just yet
After playing catch-up for most of the
game, Clackamas finally did overtake
their opponents by a score of 49-48
with eight minutes left in the game. Af
ter multiple lead changes, the Cougars
were leading
by one with a
little over
three minutes
to play. But it
all snowballed
after that Af
ter . some
missed shots
and a lot of
frustration,
Clark knocked
the Cougars
out of the
winner’s
bracket with a
final score of
61-71. This
loss killed all
hopes of Clackamas bringing home
anything higher than fifth place.
‘We knew they were good, we just
dug ourselves a real big hole, and made
a nice run at it, but could never get it
done,” said Martineau. ‘We... didn’t
play as well or as hard as we should
have the first 30 minutes of the game
and then when we had to, we got after
it and played well and played hard, but
we just kind of ran out of gas. They
made some shots, and we made a
couple of bad turnovers and got us
down five or six with a couple of min
utes to go... we couldn’t make any
big shots.”
After the disappoint
ment of the first loss
wore off, the Cougars
came back on Saturday
to takeontheSkagit Val
ley Cardinals. With the
pressure of the first
game behind them, the
Cougar women went
out and played a little
better, but still struggled
to score baskets. Going
into halftime, the Cou
gars were up 28-27. The
game remained pretty
close until the last four
minutes. By then the
Cougars woe up by six
and were starting to
look much more fo
cused than the day be
fore. The won by 10
points, 58-48, but still
hadn’t gotten back into
the rhythm they had
possessed all season
long.
“The difference was
that we finally relaxed a
little bit Even the first
seven or eight minutes
of this game we
struggled to score
points. But we finally
went out relaxed and
scored enough points
to get it done,” said
Martineau ‘I’m obvi
ously worried about the
offense a little bit.
(We’re) not as aggressive, not as
strong. We’re shooting up air balls and
stuff like that because of nerves.
They’re putting too much pressure oh
themselves to do well and they just
need to go out and play basketball.
As a coach it’s frustrating because
there is nothing you can tell them to
help diem make shots.”
The next team Clackamas faced was
the Centralia Trailblazers. The Cougars
have faced them a couple times already
this season and beat them by at least
20 both times. But this time it wasn’t
such an easy victory, mainly due to
the lack of offense by the Cougar
women. Clackamas defeated Centralia
by 11 points, 59-48, but still struggled.
‘It’s frustrating for the girls, it’s frus
trating for the coaches because there
is nothing we cart tell them,” said
Martineau “Defensively Ithoughtour
effort wasftlotbetter.But offensively...
Ican’texplainit Whenwehadtomake
shots down the end, we did a nice job
of it It’s been a good tournament but
it’s been a frustrating one because
The Cougar women finished
the year as the eighth-best
team out of the 36 teams that
are members of the
NWAACCs. Their trip up to
the championships at
Kennewick, Washington on
March 8-11 was full of both
highs and lows. Left: A Clark
player jumps at Melissa
Gibson in an attempt to
distract her from shooting.
Below left: During halftime
of the Cougars first game,
Head Coach Jim Martineau
tries to get his players fired
up to come back from a 13-
point deficit. Bottom: The
Cougar women get pumped
for their next battle. Below:
Kayla Steen shows her
disgust with a call made
during the Cougars 10-point
victory over the Skagit
Valley Cardinals.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SALENA DE LA
CRUZ / Clackamas Print
we’re just a different team. Offen
sively jve’re not the same. I can’t
explain it”
That victory put the women in a
match-up against the Whatcom
Orcas to determine if they were go
ing to be fifth-place finishers, or left
in eighth place. To begin the game,
the Cougars looked like the team
that they had been during the sea
son. They were making more of their
shots and had a
six-point lead
within the re
maining 11 min
utes. But then
fatigue set in on
these women.
Whatcom
quickly took ad-
vantage
of
Clackamas’
handicap, lead
ing by five at the
halfway mark.
From there, it
continued to get
uglier and uglier.
With ten minutes
left in the game,
the Cougars were losing by 20
points. Although they were able to
get within 12 down the stretch, at
the end of the game, the Cougars
were on the losing end of a 78-66
game. This final loss of the season
put the Cougar women at a 26-6
record overall, and an eighth-place
spot in the NWAACC tournament
But the most disappointing aspect
of this tournament is the potential
the Cougars had.
“In the back of my mind, I know
we’re as good as the two teams play
ing for thé championship,” said
Martineau. “That’s probably the
most frustrating, disappointing thing
is that when we’re playing well and
we’re confident, I think we’re as
good as anybody."
While the disappointment of this
year's finish is still weighing heavily
on the Cougars' hearts, there is still
hope for next year's team. Four fresh
men started at least six games this
year, and should be able to help lead
the team.
"I don't expect us to take a step
backwards next year," said
Martineau. "The freshmen need to
step up. And they're going to get
better this spring and summer and
we're going to come back and add a
few good kids and be ready to go. I
would be very shocked if we're...not
doing the same thing we just did,
playing for a league championship
and coming up here and trying to
compete."
To reach Elena Boryska e-mail
MightyMouse030@hotmail.com or
drop by B-104.