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Photo by Brett Stanley/The Advocate
Sophomore point guard Earl Jones will run the offense for the Saints this season after earning second-team all NWAACC last season.
Basketball season gets under way for men and women
The Advocate
The men’s basketball team has recently held two scrimmages against tough competition as the team looks to improve its eighth-place finish in last season’s NWAACC tournament.
The team participated in the Clackamas Community College Jamboree Nov. 7. Head Coach Geoff Gibor said, “In the jamboree, we played pretty well for stretches,” said Gibor. “We are still working on our rotations and playing consistently throughout the game.”
The Saints also scrimmaged Warner Pacific University and Gibor said he was happy with how his team handled that challenge.
“I knew Warner Pacific was going to be a big test for us,” he said. “We played really well and had some success.”
Gibor said the men have a lot of talent coming in from the freshman group he recruited in his first season as head coach. “Drew Johnson will play a lot for us,” said Gibor. “Cody Moreland will play for us also and Nate (Gepford) will help us.”
Gibor said he is also excited about his core group of five returning players.
“Obviously Earl Jones is huge for us,” said Gibor. “But we also have Jamar (Johnson), Chris Weitzel, Garret Strasburg and Jeremy Jones.” Also returning for the Saints is guard Andre Norman.
Injuries have plagued them early in the season. “We’ve been pretty banged up this season,” said Gibor. “Taylor (Webster) broke his foot first week of conditioning. John Johnson, Andre Norman, Chris Weitzel and Jamar all have
injuries so we have been banged up pretty bad.”
The next scrimmage for the Saints before preseason starts is against Pacific University Saturday at 11 a.m. at home.
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The women’s basketball team hopes to start the season strong after finishing out fifth overall in the NWAAC last year with 19 wins and 12 losses.
The Saints held their first scrimmage Tuesday against the Corbin College JV team at Corbin College in Salem.
Coach Larry Davis says the team is sacrificing a lot and that it appears it has been paying off during recent practices.
“We take very little breaks,” Davis said. “We’ll go hard for 15 minutes to a half hour, and if we take a break in between drills its only for about 30 seconds and we’re back on the court. To be successful, we have to work harder than everyone else we’ll be facing.”
The team has been working on defense during their practice sessions lately.
“We’re a very defense-oriented team,” said Davis. “Last year we held our opponents to about 63 points a game” and Davis said he hopes to keep the opponent’s numbers low again. He said they kept opponents’ field goal percentage below 40 percent.
Sophomore guard Brittany Yates said, “We’ve got a lot of depth this year. I think our incoming freshmen are really going to bring a lot to the team and I think between the arriving freshmen and the returning sophomores we’re going to work really well together.”
Asked what kind goals the team is setting this year, Yates said, “We’re shooting for first in our conference and then hopefully NWAACCs, but it really all depends how well the other teams play.”
Davis said players to watch on the team include sophomore Katie Smith, who received an honorable mention in the Southern Region last year, and sophomore Brooklyn Bahme, who is in the NWAACC top 20 for scoring and rebounding and in the top 10 for assists and steals, holding positions five and two, respectively. Bahme also received an honorable mention in the Southern Region last year.
The Saints next game is 5:30 p.m. today at home against Pacific University.
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