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Women falter to Cougars at home
The Advocate
The Lady Saints basketball team lost their first conference game Wednesday night in a 63-61 nailbiter against archrivals Clackamas Community College Cougars at home.
The Saints jumped to a 12-2 lead halfway through the first half before collapsing to let the Cougars back in the game.
“This has been our rule and style of play,” said Saints Head Coach Larry Davis. “We like to jump out to big leads fast. I liked the pace and tempo we played. Ultimately, it just came down to us missing free throws.”
The Saints ended the first half up by three and held the Cougars to 38.7 percent from the field. They also held sophomore Rylee Peterson, who on the season is averaging 16 points a game, to six points.
The Lady Saints committed 26 turnovers in the game and were plagued with missed free throws.
“We just needed to make our free throws,” said Davis. “They didn’t shoot real well from the line also but it cost us.”
Halfway through the second half, freshman point guard Emily Bando went down with a high ankle sprain, Davis said. “Hopefully she won’t be out for very long,” said Davis. “We will get her some treatment on it, but she is doubtful to play Saturday (against Chemeketa).”
Sophomore guard Brooklyn Bahme, who scored 12 points for the Saints, said, “Personally I was a little nervous. I was sad because she (Emily) went down and with Brittany fouled out and Shawnelle (Campbell) with four, I thought I was gonna be back there (in the backcourt) all by myself.”
The game was close down the stretch. With 10 seconds left the game was tied at 61 and Clackamas had the ball. Coming out of the huddle, the Cougars Head Coach Jim Martineau had a play drawn up to go back door to Peterson. Instead, the Cougars inbounded the ball to guard Dayle Powell, who made a hook shot from four feet with 1.7 seconds left to win the game.
“We were trying to go back door,” said Martineau. “It was covered really well. They knew it was coming so we just passed off to Dayle Powell, who is a left- hand shooter, and she shot a teardrop with her right to win it for us. We were down really early. It was a struggle for us to come back, but I am just happy to get a win in here.”
“0ur goal was to not let them get points in the paint,” said Bahme. “It really sucks the game ended that way.”
Davis said, “I would have been happy if we lost by them making a three. Instead we got beat on a high percentage shot that we were trying to not let happen by letting their guards in the lane.”
Peterson finished with 15 points for the Cougars, to lead all players, and added seven rebounds. The Saints got big contributions from sophomore Katie Smith who got 8 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots. Campbell also scored 11 points and got four assists for the Saints.
On Saturday, the Saints opened the regular season against Portland Community College and dominated through the game, according to Davis, winning 74-30.
The Saints moved out to a 38-13 lead and never looked back.
“We just played our game,” said Davis. “This game was a way for us to start on a positive note for the season.”
The Saints continued their dominance throughout the game with Smith being the game’s leading scorer with 20 points. Smith also contributed nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Bahme finished the game with 12 points, three assists and three blocks.
The Saints next game is Saturday at home against the Chemeketa Storm at 4 p.m.
“They are an up-and-coming team,” said Davis. “We can’t look past them and need to take care of business. We have to play 40 minutes to win.”
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