SPORTS
Cougars continue comeback
BY JACOB THOMPSON ';
SPORTS EDITOR
Clackamas Community College’ s m en’ s
basketball team overcomes slow start at
Chemeketa Community College to win
their fourth straight game, improving to
12-6 on the season and 4-1 in league play.
Coming off of a 76-65 win over Linn-
Benton Community College on Jan. ,'17,
the Cougars looked to keep things rolling
against th eir rival C h em eketa Storm
Saturday.
“ [C hem eketa] alw ays seem s to be
jacked-up for us,” said Head Coach Clif
W egner. “ They alw ays seem to p lay
w ell against Clackam as. I don’ t know
w hat they say or do, but yeah, it’ s been
a rivalry for 20 years before I was here. ”
W ith.full bleachers and enthusiastic
C h em eketa fan s at fu ll th ro a t, the
opening tip went Clackamas’ way, and
sophom ore guard Briggs Young h it a
3-pointer just 24 seconds into the game.
But it would be the Storm who controlled
the first five minutes of Saturday’ s game.
After Young’s 3-point basket, Chemeketa
outscored the Cougars 19-9. Chemeketa
was ahead by nine for most of the first
half, but big layups by freshm an p o st
Adam Gehrig w ith 4:52 rem aining and
sophomore guard Isaiah Gentry at the
fo u r-m in u te m ark pulled Clackam as
w ithin six points of Chem eketa at 31-
37. Gehrig completed another big lay-up
at the end o f the first half to shrink the
deficit to one; 47-48 Chemeketa.
. “ Every team in.this league is good> they
can beat you any day,” said Young. “ You
just got to stay persistent and take it one
step at a time. We got down by 12, but
then we came back real w ell going into
the second half.”
The Cougars shot w ell in the first half,
h ittin g 17 o f th eir 31 sh o ts from the
field. Clackam as’ leading scorers were
sophom ore guard Nygil Carr (13 PTS),
Gentry (10 PTS), and freshm an forward
Donovan Tafua (9 PTS). Chemeketa shot
18. for. 38 from the field and were lead
by sophom ore guard A ustin Evans (9
PTS), freshman forward Gage Johnson (8
PTS), and sophomore guard Jack Frazier
(7 PTS).
The second half saw the Chemeketa
Storm com e out hot once again, and
before four m in utes had passed, the
Storm was once again up by 11, leadihg
60-49. W egner called a full timeout at
16:31 to regroup the Cougars, and the
strategy paid off. Out o f the tim eout,
Clackamas Print _ _ _ — .—
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Donovan Tafua, a freshmen toward for Clackamas, clashes with Gage Johnson
of Chemeketa. Clackamas ended the game 92-88, granting them a forth
straight win.
Clackamas got the ball to Young, and he
hit a 3 -pointer that sparked a 10-2 run
that evened things up at 62-62 with 13:45
remaining in regulation.
“ It was an intense game,” said Wegner.
“ There was some stuff going back and
fo rth and the referees w ere trying to
settle people down, but I think our kids
really kept their posse, and didn’t make
any dumb fouls, and run their mouths
and get a [technical foul] like they did.
Kudos to our kids for staying w ith it and
battling from behind. ”
The game was neck and neck from that
point until 830 remaining were behind
Gentry’s near perfect free throw shooting
(4-5), and Young’s 3-point shooting, the
Cougars pulled ahead by 11 in a little over
a minute; 81-70, Clackamas.
“ It comes w ith the game and it goes
with the game,” said Carr. “We never give
up. We’re going to keep on fighting until
we see double zeros on the scoreboard. ”
Chemeketa then went on a run of their
own, outscoring 9-2 to tighten the score
at 83-79, but once again Young canned a
ejutch three-pointer with 2:21 remaining
“ We have’ a l o t p f ch em istry,” said
G entry. “ W e w ork on th is s tu ff in
practice, at the beginning we kind Of
tried to go one on one, but at the end we
realized what we wanted, and that was a
win. So we all came together and found
the hot hand,, and tonight it happened
to be Briggs in that second half.”
Young’s hot hand (15 PTS in the second
half) helped the Cougars regain, and
maintain the lead, but it was Gentry’ s
perform ance from the free throw line
th at k e p t ^ e ,S t o r m fro m m akin g a
comeback, making seven of nine from
the charity stripe, three of which came
with 40 seconds or less rem ainingin the
ball game.
“ Mostly we made our free throws and
didn’t turn it over,” said Wegner. “That’s
a really good win because they have been
playing well. That’s the fifth ranked team
w e’ve beaten in this stretch. W e’ve won
eight out of nine. I feel like w e’re playing
w ell and peaking at the right tim e.”
The C ougars fin is h e d th e n ig h t
shooting 33 for 68 from the field, and
were led offensively by Gentry (21 PTS),
Young (18 PTS), and Carr (17 PTS). Tafua
and G entry grabbed five .rebounds a
piece, and G entry led the team w ith
three steals.
Chemeketa shot 32 for 74 bn the night,
and their high scorer w as fresh m an
forward Bryson Gray, w ith 17. points.
So far th is season Clackam as has
averaged 91.9 points per gam e driven
by Carr (21.6 ppg), Gentry (16.4 ppg),
and Young (10.7 ppg) the Cougars have
cbn sistent guard p lay that m ay have
them ready for a run at a NWAC title.
“ We practice this, we go to practice
and put up a bunch of s h o ts ,” said
Carr. “ These tw o are probably the best
shooters I’ve ever played with in my life.
[Gentry] catches fire, [Young] catches
fire, [Young] knows how to shoot, but
so m etim es he gets n ervous. Briggs
know s how to shoot the ball, Isaiah
knows how to shoot the ball, and they
are going to get a lot of shots in, and I’m
going to chip in wherever I can. ’1
The Cougars look.to continue their
winning streak at home this w eek versus
Clark Community College
overall,
2-4 in league) on Jan. 24, and Umpqua
Community College (12-6,3 -2 ) on Jan.
27.
to"put Clackamas up 86^79.
th e c 1 a c k a m a s p rin t.n e t
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ January 24, 2018