Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2005)
10 e February 16, 2005 t^LACKAM A Sprint Women’s squad upsets Lane Cq Frank Jordan The Clackamas Print It was a very down and a very up week for the Clackamas women’s hoop team as they upset the No. 1-ranked Lane CC Lady Titans on Saturday, three days after playing a horrific game in losing to Chemeketa CC in Salem. Lane came into the game as the only unbeaten team in the NWAACC, but the Cougars showed why they are the defend ing NWAACC champions in a 99-93 victory that solidified the Cougars’ playoff seeding. “It was far and away the best game of the year for our team,” said Head Coach Jim Martineau. “They are the best team in the NWAACC this year, but the road to the title still goes through Oregon City and our girls really took it to them. It was a great win.” The Cougars started off slow, getting down by 14 early in the first half. But Clackamas kept chipping away at the lead, eventually getting the Lane lead down to 10 by halftime. Clackamas used outstanding pressure defense to keep cutting into the deficit and eventually took the lead for good with about nine minutes to go in the game. The Cougars held off a late rally by the Titans and held on for the six-point win. Freshman LaToya Hill from Grant HS in Portland continued her outstanding play by pouring in 29 of her career-high 33 points in the second half to boost the Cougars to victory. Hill made 11-25 shots from the field en route to her career high. Rochelle Reeves backed up Hill with 19 points of her own, while Kellie Morey added 1.1 points and eight rebounds. Vanessa Schmitz had 10 points and seven boards and L’Trece Prewitt added seven rebounds to the effort. Lane was led by the 20 points from Ashley Sequeira, while Cora McVey added 19 points. Lane fell into a first place tie with Umpqua CC with the loss, while the Cougars improved to 8-3 in the Southern Division and 20-6 overall. The Cougars are a solid third place in the division, needing only one more win to clinch a third seed in the upcom ing NWAACC tournament. Last Wednesday, Clackamas played one of their worst games of the year in losing to fifth place Chemeketa 50-46. “To tell you the truth, our heads were simply not in the game,” said Martineau. “We shot very poorly and had very poor effort for long stretches during the game. We definitely did not come prepared to play, and it cost us.” Hill led the Cougars with 23 points and had five steals, while Prewitt had a solid overall game with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven steals. Schmitz con tributed with a game-high 13 rebounds from her post position. Sara Brooks led the victorious Chiefs with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Sarah Davis chipped in 11 points. Lauren Parrish and Kristin Gunderson each had 11 rebounds to help the Chiefs’ effort off the glass. Tonight, the Lady Cougars play their final home game of the regular season, hosting the Mt. Hood CC Lady Saints in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off in the Randall Hall gym. Saturday, Clackamas will travel to Roseburg to take on the co-division leaders, the Umpqua CC Timberwomen, in a game with a 4 p.m. tip-off. Despite losing two games last week, Clackamas stays in playoff hunt Michael McCormack Sports Co-Editor The Cougar men hit a little bump on the road to the play offs last week, losing two games and putting more pressure than ever on the young and depleted squad. Last Wednesday, the men headed south to play Chemeketa CC, who sits alone atop the NWAACC standings with an 11 -0 league record. The Cougars were in the game through its entirety and took a lead into halftime by a score of 37-33, but the Storm was too strong in the second half and won the game 71-67. In the final minute of the con test the Cougars had a couple of chances to take the lead or tie. The Storm had a one-point lead following a missed free throw by Chemeketa, but was able to get the offensive board and get back to the foul line. After mak ing two free throws, the score was 70-67 and Clackamas missed their three-point attempt to tie the game. Freshman Brian Freeman led all scorers with 22 points and pulled down 12 boards for the Cougars. Saturday, the Cougars came home to play against the lowly Lane CC Titans. Earlier this sea son the Cougars beat the Titans in Eugene 84-72. The Titans came into the game Saturday with a dismal 1-9 record and seemed to~ be an easy win for the Cougars, but that was not the case. “It was one of those nights you have to live with ... we didn’t play with our hearts,” Head Coach Clif Wegner said. From the get-go the tempo was set by Lane; with tight defense and not allowing the Cougars to run fast breaks, the Titans were able to play within the confines of their own game. “They forced their tempo onto us, not us forcing our tempo on them,” sophomore Wes Jensen said. Both teams started the game shooting lights out, shooting a combined 62 percent from three- point land. Through the first 15 minutes of the game it was a see-saw battle, with neither team leading by more than five. In the final minutes of the first half Lane started to pull away from Clackamas, forcing turn overs and hitting that outside shot they had resorted to. At halftime the score was 46-38 in favor of the Titans. The second half was con trolled by Lane with great time management and shot selection. The Titans had cooled off from the outside, but played sound defense and held Clackamas to a sub-par 20.5 field goal percent- wage in the game’s final frame. The Cougars out-rebounded Lane in dominating fashion, pull ing down 46 boards to the Titans’ 28, but defense is where the Cougars failed to come through. “We have to play better defense in order to win; nobody stepped up to the challenge and it opened our eyes to see that any NWAACC game is a potential loss,” Jensen said. Despite being out-rebounded by such a large margin, Lane was able to find other ways to score. The Cougars had 12 turnovers throughout the contest and the Titans were able to convert those into 16 points. From three-point distance the Cougars got out- scored as well, 33-21. When all was said and done, the Cougars had lost their third straight game 75-65 and left looking for aid. After last week’s games the Cougars got word that sopho more guard Maycol Rivera was lost for the season with a tom ACL. With Josh Spirlin already on the injured list with a bum wrist, the Cougars are desperate to find support in their depleted lineup. “Everyone else needs to step up and find a way for them to play better,” Wegner said. With three games remaining on the season, the Cougars sit alone in third place in the division, two games up on Southwestern Oregon CC. Clackamas plays host to Mt. Hood CC tonight. Mt. Hood is second in the division with a 10- 1 record and 21-2 overall. Game time is 7:30 p.m. in the Randall Hall gym. Saturday, Clackamas travels to Roseburg to take on the Umpqua CC Timbermen, with a 6 p.m. tip-off scheduled. Jeff Sorensen Clackamas Print Sophomore sharp shooter Wes Jensen lines up for a technical foul shot as fellow Cougars Jake Kettles (25), Matt Sanders (22), Martin Axnick (21) and Cody Bass (30) look on. The Cougars’ leading scorer LaToya Hill (3) rises above defender to get a clean look at a three-point attempt
