The Clackamas print., March 14, 2018, Page 7, Image 7

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STORY AND PHOTO BY, JACOB THOMPSON
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SPORTS EDITOR
The Sweet 16 round of the NWAC basketball playoffs,
was not too sweet to Clackamas Com m unity College’ s
M en’ s basketball team Saturday. As the Cougars fell
to Peninsula College 74-87 ending their 2017-2018
campaign.
It w as a shaky start early Saturday morning for the
Cougars, who found them selves down 8-0 in less than
three m inutes after the opening tip -o ff. Head coach
Clif W egner burned a quick timeout, and tried to settle
h is p layers dow n and it seem ed to w ork. The n ext
possession for Clackamas led to a three-pointer from
freshm an post Adam Gehrig and that sparked a 17-4
run for the Cougars that gave them a 17-12 halfway
through the first half.
“ I fe lt like we w ere really controlling th e gam e,”
W egner said. “ Even though we w eren’t pulling away
[on the scoreboard]. ”
The Cougars remained in the lead until Peninsula’ s
big man, M arky Adam s hit a layup to ties things at
26-26 w ith 6:01 to go until halftim e. For the next two
m inutes Peninsula outscored Clackamas 5-0 to take
a 31-26 lead. Sophomore post Shawn Carson scored a
layup to end the drought and the two teams once again
traded buckets until half, Peninsula leading 39 "35-
, Sophomore guard Nygil Carr led the Cougars in scoring
for the first half going 5-13 from the field for 13 points,
Carson added eight points, and sophomore guard Isaiah
G entry had five points. The Cougars outrebounded
Peninsula 20-19, and had seven more assists, 10-3, but
a slow start offensively in the beginning of the second
half would have Clackamas in trouble again.
Both teams struggled offensively to start the second
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Briggs Young crouches on the court during the closing seconds of the Cougars loss against Peninsula
College last Saturday.
half, but Peninsula put together a 6-0 run that gave
them a 45-35 lead. Genty scored the first bucket of the
second half for the Cougars with 15:47 remaining in the
game. The Cougars were able to bring the game within
four after sophomore guard Briggs Young hit a jumper,
but four was as close as Clackamas was able to make
it. Freshman post Donavan Tafua made a layup with
5:01 left in the game and it looked like there might be a
little Cougar magic brewing, but on the next possession,
Peninsula hit a three-pointer to make it 78-69.
“ They started hitting Shots and had good offensive
runs. I mean, we had ours too, but they just had more
th an u s,” Carr said. “ W e w e re n ’ t on sh ootin g our
shots today.”
“Anyone who gets to the
tournament has to call that a
successful season.”
-CiifW egnw
Peninsula was able to control the gam e the rest of
the way arid won 87-74«
It was an emotional scene as the final seconds ticked
away. W ith several Cougars fighting back tears and
Young crouched on the court and held his face in his
hands.
“ W hen it comes to an end of an era, I mean, I w on ’t
ever play at Clackamas ever again,” Young said. “ You
theclackam asprint.net
start to thirik through all the memories, especially with
all the players. I mean me and Isaiah are really close,
Austin is close to me, Shawn and you know you probably
w on’t play with them again, it’ s just that aspect of it.”
- Clackamas made it a goal to return to the playoffs
this season and they accomplished it, finishing 17-13.
“ Anyone who gets to the tournament has to call that.a
successful season,” Wegner said. “We had a very tough
confererice arid we were hoping to get a one seed or a
two seed to give us a little better draw. Peninsula is a
tough opponent.” I ;
Clackam as w ill lose seven sophom ores, including
leading scorers Carr (20.8 points per game) and Gentry
(17.0 ppg), as well as Young, Carson, sophomore guards
Fredy Vera, Noah Callier and sophomore post Austin
Rose.
“ Right now I’m thinking it’ s going to be really hard
to find a Nygil Carr and a Briggs Young and an Isaiah
G entry,” W egner said. “ Shawn and Austin have given
us good stuff and Fredy’ S been a valuable role player
too. So w e’ ll just go to work and w e ’ve been looking at
kids, talking to kids and w e ’ll get kids in the gym and
w e ’ll sign the best group we can.”
Clackamas w ill return freshm en posts Nik Polynice,
Tafua, Gehrig, and Elliot Hesse along w ith freshm an
guard Justin Crawford. Wegner said he is excited about
the returning group, but perhaps it’ s too early to think
about next season. *
“ I loved the whole thing about coming toClackamas,”
Carr said. “ Having coach W egner coaching me arid
playing with Briggs and Isaiah and all these guys, I m
just happy I came. I don’t have any bad memories, all
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