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.