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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 29, 2012)
4^ e Clackamas Print sportsed@clackamas.edu Wednesday,Feb 29, 2012 Sports Sports sportsed@clackamas. edu The Clackamas Print J Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 Most Valuable Sam M cCloud South ern Region - Defensive Player o f the Year Sophm om ore All-Star Leads NWAACC in steals and Honorable Mention Jenny Johnson Leads team in scoring, free throws m ade and attem pted, free throw per centage, second on team in assists and steals. Paige Ward “I guess th a t’s w h at h ap p en s w h en y o u co m e fro m a sm all to w n .” tneback Player o f the Year Ashleigh Anderson Second leading scorer after sitting o u t the entire preseason recovering from knee surgery. : High points Loss o f freshman Alex Howe for the season (tom ACL) Loss o f sophomore Lindsay Kanalz for 10 games (broken hand) 19 point hom e loss to Yakima Valley 28 point road loss to Chemeketa Regular season swept by Lane • W o n 10 o f final 12 gam es • 21 p o in t ro ad victory over M t. H o o d • 8 7 - 8 4 h o m e victory over S W O reg o n to m ove back in to playoff p o sitio n • Taylor D u n n em erges as one o f th e league’s best scorers • B rett Ball’s 11 d ouble doubles • N o p ro lo n g ed injuries Clarf Kamas women to take on Bellevue in first round Cougars firing on all cylinders as they enter post season The Cougars’ late season run has earned them a spot in the fir s t round o f the Northwest Athletic Association o f Community Colleges tournament, which begins on March 3 in Tri-Cities, Wash. By John William Howard Sports Editor W alking o u t o f the gym at M t. H o o d C om m unity College, m en’s basketball head coach C lif Wegner m ade a bold proclamation. “W e really think that we’re the best team in the south,” said Wegner, “and we really wanted to show that.” C om ing into the game, m aking good on such a statem ent looked like a tall order. M t. H ood was leading the southern region, was undefeated on their hom e floor and had already beaten Clackamas at hom e on Jan. 18. Clackamas answered that challenge with a 67-46 victory, dom inating M t. H ood in nearly every facet o f the game including rebounding, assists, field goal percentage and three-point field goal percent age. Anybody w ho hadn’t already w oken up to the Cougars at that point was iolted awake. In truth, the tear o n which Clackamas finished the season (won 10 o f final 12 games) started back in the middle o f January w hen they w ent on the road to visit Lane C om m unity College. In that game, freshman Jake D ew itt got the start over Josh Lokeno, w ho had incurred the wrath o f W egner due to an “undisclosed violation o f team rules.” D ew itt has had the starting position and a lion’s share o f the m inutes ever since, and the play o f the team has dramatically improved. “Jake hasn’t been as flashy {as Lokeno], b ut he’s been m ore steady,” said Wegner. “H e’s been doing a good job o f running the offense. H e’s been hitting shots, playing good defense, n ot turning it over,” Following Dewitt’s appointm ent, Clackamas m ade huge strides, com ing hom e w ith a 13 point victory over Lane to embarrass Portland C om m unity College by 39 points. T he Cougars w ent on the road to best U m pqua C om m unity College by 16, and then returned hom e for what m ay nave been the true tipping point o f their season. T h e day o f die game, b oth Clackamas and S W Oregon C om m unity College were tied in the southern region standing at fourth place. S W Oregon jum ped on Clackamas early and lead 37-30 at the break. T h e second half w ould belong to the Cougars, w ho outscored S W Oregon 57-47 to com e o u t on top w ith a narrow 87-84 victory behind 34 points from Taylor D unn, w ho leads the team in scoring. T h e w in m oved Clackamas back into the playoff hunt, putting them in sole possession o f the fourth and final playoff spot in the southern region. Following their emotional victory, Clackamas had an equally emotional defeat. After having played Chemeketa C om m unity College dow n to the wire, the Cougars were tied with only a few sec onds left. T hey gave up a free throw and lost by one point, only to discover that there was a scorekeep ing error that gave Chemeketa an extra two points. “It’s a hard thing to swallow,” said Wegner, w ho m entioned that the incident was under investiga tion at the N W AACC level. “But, you know, the game is over and we’ve done a j it’s over’ and putting it behind us. T h e best tonic for such a disheartening loss, it seems, is to bury it w ith wins. Clackamas returned from their doosie o f a road trip to string together a five game w in streak, including the win over M t. H ood, a dose victory to move past Linn-Benton C om m unity College for third place in the stand ings and a dom inant 37 point victory over lowly Portland. W hen Clackamas takes the floor on M arch 3, they won’t be seeing their opponent for the first time. T hey faced Peninsula College in the finals o f the Clackamas Holiday Invitational on Dec. 28, a game in which they lost 85-65. Peninsula (23-4, 13-3 N orth) features one o f the league’s top scorers in U S C com m it J.T Terrell and is com ing off o f an N W A A C C championship in 2011. Clackamas and Peninsula will face off at 10 a.m. Saturday As the players filed into the lobby o f Randall H all after their post game debrief last Saturday, the confidence was thick, mostly due to th e fact that Clackamas knows through and through that they are playing as good as any other team in the league. “I f there was ever a tim e to play your best, it’s right now,” said D unn. Womens Basketball 11 Southern Region Championships 1985, 1987, 1990,1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, ''»04, 2006,2010,2011 2004 NWAACC C h a m p io n s M en’s Basketball Nine Southern Region Championships 1990,1993,1994,1995,2001, 2003,2007,2009,2011 Five NWAACC Championships 1987,1994,2007,2009,2010 ^Sfi&amas overcomes a rash o f uries to go 11-3 in the regular season, earning their twelfth con secutive tournament appearance By John William Howard Sports Editor g People say th at sport is an escape from the real life .trials o f the world. It offers entertaining action for the fans, and som ething that they can watch and enjoy from the fringe. T here are countless storylines to follow and players to watch. D ram a was certainly offered by this year’s w om en’s team. Clackamas C om m unity College (22-4, 11-3 South) finished third in the neck-andneck southern region race behind Lane C om m unity College and Chem eketa C om m unity College, overcoming m ountain after m ountain o f adversity. Looking unstoppable throughout m ost o f the preseason, the Cougars blew past their first 11 preseason opponents, outscoring them by an average o f 19 points per contest. In those games, Clackamas defeated three o f the eventual four region champions in three consecutive games, besting Skagit Valley C om m unity College (north) by five, then Lane (south) by three and Centralia College (west) by seven. T h e Cougars finally lost o n Dec. 18, when they m et Yakima Valley C om m unity College in the cham pionship o f the Clackamas Crossover tournam ent. Things were dose for m uch o f the game w ith Clackamas trailing Yakima Valley by five or six, b u t a string o f fouls, in d u d in g co-head coach Jim M artineau’s first ejection in 15 seasons, shed the defidt to double digits, and Clackamas 72-53. T h e beginning o f the regular season saw the team welcoming freshman Ashleigh Anderson to their ranks. Anderson saw 17 m inutes o f action in the season opener at S W Oregon C om m unity College, h er first in over a year since having sur gery o n her knee. O ver the next several games, A nderson im proved quickly, becom ing m uch m ore comfortable o n the court and in the offense. Clackamas jum ped o u t o f the starting gates in the southern region regular season, w inning their first three, in d u d in g an em barrassment o f S W O regon b y 33 points and a narrow, gutsy victory over Chem eketa at hom e. It was then th at things started to go a little wrong. M t. H o o d C om m unity College was in town, and the stands were packed as usual. Anderson’s personal fan d u b o f form er teammates from O régon C ity H igh School filled u p several rows in th e front, and the hom e team was easily blowing o u t their cross tow n opponents. Starting forward Lindsay Kanalz was leading all scores w ith 19 points, already a season high. T hen, after just over 20 m inutes o n the court, Kanalz took a fall, breaking her right hand. Clackamas w ould finish the game w ith a victory, b u t they had been dealt a m ajor blow. Kanalz w ould miss nine games, returning final ly in the road w in over Portland C om m unity College o n Feb. 22 and playing again in th e final hom e game against U m pqua C om m unity College . T h e return was a surprise as Kanalz expected to sit o u t until the N W A A C C tournam ent, b u t the ■ coaching staff thought it best, for her to get some gam e tim e in before the tournam ent started. “Defensively she’s our captain, she’s our leader, she’s our vocal person,” said M artineau. “It allows us to have one more, big person so if we get in foul trouble we don’t have to be quite as careful with th e [Feldman] twins.” T h e injury bug didn’t stop w ith Kanalz. Three games later on Feb. 28, Clackamas m ade the trip to Roseburg to take o n U m pqua and returned having w on the game b u t lost their sixth m an Alex H ow e to a season ending knee injury. A t this point, even w ith the return o f freshman Jasmine Gibbs-Brown, Clackamas was dow n to just nine healthy players. After ano th er blow out o f S W O regon, Clackam as traveled dow n to Salem to face Chemeketa, b u t simply didn’t show u p to play. T h e road team was badly o u t shot, hitting 1-12 three pointers in the first half to fall behind 38-22 at halfrime before falling 79-51 for their w orst loss since the 2008 season. Clackam as w oke up, following their loss w ith a pair o f victories over lowly Linn-Benton C om m uity College and M t. H o o d before return ing hom e to face Lane for a chance at the southern region cham pionship. T here they h it another roadblock, falling in a closely contested game to Lane C om m unity College, and dropping into a tie w ith Chem eketa for second place. Clackamas finished th e season w ith a pair o f wins over a dreadful 4-21 Portland team and U m pqua, an d will take o n Bellevue College at 8 a.m. o n M arch 3 to open u p the NW A A C C tour nam en t in Tri-Cities, Wash.
