Cougars make midseason surge
DESPITE SLOW START COUGARS RIDING FIVE GAME WIN STREAK, MAKE PUSH FOR NWAC TOURNAMENT
STORY BY DOUG FRY
W ith the season com ing to an end, the
Clackamas women’s basketball team eyes
the NWAC tournam ent and a top three
finish in league.
A fter an 8 -4 preseason record, the
Cougars Started league play in rough
fashion. A 0-3 start to league caused by
dwindling roster numbers and offensive
woes led to a 1-4 record through their first
five games. Head coach Jim Martineau, in
his 19th year at Clackam as, knew there
was no cause for concern.
“ I t ’ s ab n o rm al to start 0 -3 , said
M artin eau. “ I ’ve been here 19 years
and we’ve never started league 0-3 and
d efin itely never started 1-4 so th a t’ s
unusual. It’ s just a different way of going
about your business and I think all along
we knew we had a chance.”
F re s h m a n s h o o tin g guard K atie
Krammerer expressed how having eight
players has affected the team.
“ It’ s been tough, it’ s been really tough.
The games are a lot longer than in high
school, so being a starter you have to
play a lot of m inutes,” Krammerer said.
“ W e’ve dealt w ith it really well. A lot of
players have stepped up to fill roles that
they were not necessarily expecting to
be in .”
Fellow fre sh m a n sh o o tin g guard,
Kennedy Nofziger added how thè team
has had to change to combat the adversity
o f their roster numbers.
“ W e have to w ork hard and use our
tim e w isely,” said Nofziger. “ We can’t
get in foul trouble and we have to just
play sm art.”
Even in lo sses, the team kept their
positivity and hard w ork about them .
W h en th e y w eren ’ t lig h tin g up the
scoreboard, the Cougars have been able
to shut down opposing teams.
“ We defended well, but wound up losing
four o f the first fiv e ,” M artineau said.
“ O ffensively it was just a struggle, we
couldn’ t score. This is one o f our best
defensive teams we’ve had. That keeps
us in a lot of games. Like the Clark game
where it ended 47-39, we defended well
enough that 47 points wins that gam e.”
The Cougars have been able to turn
¿round their record in league at 6-4 and
plan to have a strong fin ish by taking
advantage o f a favorable second h a lf
schedule and settling their offense.
The w o m en ’ s team w ill fin is h the
season with four of seven games at home
along with shorter road trips to M t. Hood
Com m unity College, Clark College and
Portland Com m unity College.
“ We have a big advantage at hom e. A
lot of us were really pumped about th a t,”
Nofziger said. “ I think we can get pretty
far if we just work hard and continue to
improve every day, but right now we’re
just going game by game, ”
“ The long road trips are over. We play
C h em eketa tw ice; I th in k it ’ s in our
favor,” Martineau said. “ 9-7 makes the
playoffs in our league. We have to finish
in the top four and I think 9-7 definitely
does that. I think w e’re in pretty good
shape.”
Krammerer believes the work they have
done to fix their early struggles will help
them finish strong.
“ I have a lot of faith in u s,” she said.
“ Going from the beginning season and
our slow start and not being fast or fluent
on offense. We have picked up a lot on
defense and on offense I th in k we can
go really fa r.”
W ith eyes on clinching a playoff spot
and punching their ticket to the Northwest
A th le tic Conference C h am p io n sh ip s,
Martineau believes the Cougars have as
good of a shot as anyone to capture the
title.
“ Lower Columbia was ranked No. 1 for a
while and they beat Úmpqua,” Martineau
said. “ We beat Lower Colum bia in the
preseason. Walla Walla has been ranked
in the top four all year long and we beat
them in overtime. ”
The team will look to end their season
with big wins and plan to make the NWAC
C h am p io n sh ip s ta k in g place M arch
9-12 at Everett Com m unity College. The
Cougars currently hold third place in the
South Region and w ill need a top four
finish to qualify for the tournament.
“ A lo t o f players have
stepped up to f ill roles
that they were not
necessarily expecting to
b e in .”
-K a tie Krammerer
tíh'otos by Austin Boltz
Above: Katie Krammerer sends up a
floating jump shot.
Left: The players and staff watch from
the sideline. The bench players have
been crucial this season because of the
dwindling roster.
6 Clackamas Print FEBRUARY 15,2017 thedackamasprintcom