S ports
Gill pours in 22 second-half points
to lead Cougars past Skagit Valley
T he C lackamas P rint *11
M arch 3, 2004
and then Alex Swerzbin faked a
Cardinal defender out of his shoes
with a sweet crossover and drive to
The Clackamas men’s basketball the hole that cut the lead to eight.
team stayed alive in the NWAACC
Steve Lemma’s second of two
tournament Sunday night with an triples late in the contest gave the
87-84 victory over the Skagit Valley Cougars their first lead in a long
CC Cardinals in a consolation game. time at 75-73 with just under five
The two teams went back and minutes left. Then, Wes Jehsen con
forth early, but the Cardinals took- verted a foul-line jumper and a put
advantage of the Cougars’ lack back inside to help keep the Cougars
adaisical play to forge an early 13- ahead.
point lead. Clackamas fought back
The biggest play of the game
briefly, highlighted by a baseline came with 26 seconds to go as Gill
drive and reverse dunk by Ammon hit a huge three-pointer as he was hit
Bemis to. cut the Skagit Valley lead by a Cardinal defender. Gill’s subse
to 31 -22. The Cardinals maintained quent free throw completed a four-
that nine-point cushion up until the point play and gave Clackamas some
halftime horn, taking a 39-30 lead breathing room at 85-82.
into the lockerroom at the break.
However, a questionable call by
“We were not altogether there the officials on a Skagit Valley three-
mentally in the first half,” said Head point attempt gave the Cardinal’s
Coach Clif Wegner. “We told the Landon Lockhard a chance to tie the
kids at half that they had to get into game at the line. Lockhard hit the
the game and get after them (Skagit first two foul shots, but missed the
Valley). We did some good things, third and Lemma was fouled as he
but more bad than good.”
came up with the loose ball.
The early part of the second half Lemma’s two foul shots with 8.9
was more of the same as Skagit seconds left gave the Cougars an 87-
Valley opened up a 52-41 lead at the 84 lead, and then Lemma stole a des
15-minute mark. A Brandon Gill peration pass to end the game.
three-pointer got the Cougars going,
“Lemma was huge for us down
Frank Jordan
T he C lackamas P rint
the stretch, he really was great. He
made some good decisions and made
some big shots,” said Wegner. “Gill
had a great second half and Alex
(Swerzbin) did a great job running
the high picks in our offense. A
great effort by our trio of guards
tonight.”
Gill scored 22 of his game-high
28 points in the second half, fueling
the Cougar comeback. Lemma fol
lowed with 14 points, Bemis had 12,
Jensen had 11 and Swerzbin had 10,
along with seven rebounds, match
ing Gill in that department for team-
high honors. Clackamas shot 46 per
cent for the game, including 54 per
cent in the final half. CCC shot 16-
19 from the line during the game,
including 15-17 in the second half.
Lockhard and Bobby Turman led
Skagit Valley with 21 points apiece,
while Turman grabbed a game-high
nine rebounds in the losing effort.
“Turman is good, he did a great
job for them, we had a heck of time
containing him,” said Wegner. “In
the first half, he had a chance to spin
around people for easy looks, but in
the second half we pretty much
stopped that. Great defense on our
part and was a key to the game.”
Lemma busts out, leads Cougars past
Highline in NWAACC consolation play
Frank Jordan
T he C lackamas P rint
Saturday
afternoon,
the
Clackamas men took on Highline CC
in a loser-out game in the consolation
bracket of the NWAACC tournament
and the Cougars got 15 points and
five rebounds from Steve Lemma to
lead CCC to a 79-69 win over the
Thunderbirds in the Tri-Cities
Coliseum.
“We did a much better job today
than we did last night,” said Head
Coach Clif Wegner, referring to
Friday’s loss to Walla Walla in the
opening round. “We played with
more focus and energy and when you
do that, good things happen.”-,
The game was tight through the
first ten minutes before Clackamas
went on 10-0 run to take an 11 -point
lead at 27-16. Amnion Bemis played
strong both offensively and defen
sively during the run. Highline
fought back with a 9-0 run of their
own to get within two.
After that, the Cougars went to a
full-court trap, which seemed to dis
rupt the T-birds and in the last six
minutes of the first half, CCC went
on a 16-1 run to take a 43-26 half
time lead.
But in the second half, CCC saw
most of the foul calls go against them
and combined with some poor shoot
ing, saw their lead shrink to four
points with eight minutes left in the
game. But led by Lemma and Cole
Kieling, along with a couple of
hoops from Maycol Rivera and Ervin
Sims, kept the Cougars ahead
through the stretch run.
The biggest play of the game hap
pened with two minutes left and
CCC clinging to a three-point lead.
Kellen Williams of Highline attempt
ed a two-handed dunk inside, but
missed, which led to a Cougar break
that ended in a three-point dagger by
Lemma. The Cougars got timely
free throw shooting in the game’s
final minute to close out the
Thunderbirds.
Brandon Gill followed Lemma in:
the scoring column with 14 points,
while Bemis added 11 and Kieling
finished with 10 counters. Wes
Jensen came off the bench to grab a
team-high seven rebounds and Alex
Swerzbin dished .out five assists.
Clackamas shot 25-69 for 36 percent
on the game and was 24-32 at the
foul line.
Highline forward Tavar Proctor
was 10-15 from the field and scored
21 points, while Williams followed
with 15 points and a game-high 14
rebounds.
“Kieling and Lemma gave us
huge boosts with their play,” said
Wegner, “and Jensen did some really
good things for us off the bench. We
had a great first half, but kind of let it
get away from us late. But any win
is a good win, especially in- the tour
nament.”
AMY CASHMAN C lackamas P rint
Cougar guard Alex Swerzbin (22) sinks a lay-in as
teammate Ervin Sims (23) fights for rebound position in
CCC’s 81 -73 victory over Big Bend to win fifth place.
Poor shooting leads to opening
round loss against WI/I/ÇC
Frank Jordan
T he C lackamas P rint
In the first round of the
NWAACC
tournament,
the
Clackamas men’s basketball team
shot only 33 percent for the game
and lost to Walla Walla CC by a
score of 89-78.
Walla Walla led by one at the
halftime break, and continued to
stretch that lead throughout the sec
ond half. Clackamas made a run
about halfway through the second
half with some trapping defense, but
poor shot selection and poor free
throw shooting eventually did the
Cougars in.
Clackamas was led by 21 points
and five steals from Brandon Gill,
while Alex Swerzbin contributed 18
points and three assists. Steve
Lemma added 14 points to the
offense, and Cole Kieling and Wes
Jensen each grabbed six rebounds to
lead the Cougars off the backboards.
The Cougars shot 26-78 from the
field for the game, including 3-15
from three-point range. Clackamas
also shot only 23-35 from the foul
line for the game, including a dismal
10-18 in the second half.
“We forced a lot of shots, dur
guards tried to do too much,” said
Head Coach Clif Wegner. “The
whole team, including the guards,
just did not play very well. We
pride ourselves on being a good
passing team, but we only had six
assists as a team for the game.
That’s terrible.”
Walla Walla was led by sopho
more post Robert Pankowski with
37 points and 16 rebounds.
Pankowski shot 15-18 from the
floor for the game. Justin Fraser
backed up Pankowski with 15
points.
“Their big guy was just awe
some,” said Kieling. “He just killed
us inside, what was he, 15-18 from
the floor. Simply awesome.”
A weekend to remember at the 2004 NWAACC Basketball Championships
Photos by AMY CASHMAN Clackamas Print
Clackamas post Wes Jensen (left) goes high to the hoop
as teammate Cole Kieling goes for the follow vs SVCC.
(Left to right, in white) Cougars Somer Erickson, Cindy Alldrin and Lindsay Calmettes
follow the action during Clackamas’ 55-36 win over Chemeketa for the NWAACC title.
Three wrestlers make All-American
CCC’s Lindsay Calmettes (22) shoots between two Chemeketa defenders, while Sabra
Dunn (12) closes in for the rebound during the NWAACC championship game.
The Clackamas wrestling team competed at the
National Junior College Athletic Association
championships last weekend. The Cougar
wrestlers finished in the top 15 as a team at the
tourney. Bridger Sacher finished fourth at 197
¡pounds, Mike Maginn finished eighth at 184 and
Chris Kidby finished eighth at 174. Each of
these wrestlers’ placings earned them All-
American honors. Read next week’s edition of
The Clackamas Print for a complete wrap-up
on the wrestling season.