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After eleven-year wait, Saints make the NWAACCs
Jake Fray
The Advocate
The Saints women’s basketball team encountered rough weather against the Chemeketa Community College Storm early Wednesday but bounced back to win their third game in a row to finish the regular season with a 65-61 victory.
Freshman Brooklyn Bahme tied teammate Ericka Ziegler with a team-high 13 points while Bahme also finished the game with eight assists and 12 rebounds.
Even with their efforts, the Saints went down 27-20 going into the half.
“Defense was not there, most definitely,” said Bahme. “They were able to just drive down the middle of the key and score. We just couldn’t stop them.”
Early in the game, sophomore guard Alexandra Melonson picked up two fouls and had to sit the rest of the first half.
“Alex got into big foul trouble early on,” said Head Coach Larry Davis. “She picked up two fouls in two minutes so she had to sit the rest of the first half which hurt us because she is the heartbeat of this team.”
Coming out of the break, Melonson brought the women back to overtake the Storm and pulled away to victory.
“When Alex started the second half, she just went haywire on them and it pumped us up and we just stole the show the rest of the game,” said Bahme.
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The women stepped up their defense and played their tempo on offense.
According to Bahme, a key part of the game came in the second half on defense from freshman center Katie Smith, who also who finished the game with nine points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
“It felt good being able to play defense at a high level,” said Smith. “I knew I got seven blocks but they only wrote down four in the stat sheet.”
On Saturday, the Saints ended hopes for Linn-Benton to make the NWAACC tournament by beating the Roadrunners 69-55. The women maintained their lead after heating up a few minutes after the game started.
“We didn’t start too consistently,” said Davis. “That has been a key element this year, us starting out slowly almost every game.”
After a rough start, the women took the lead 10 minutes into the game and never relinquished.
“We got the game to be in our tempo and played our style of basketball once we picked up the pace,” said Davis.
For the Saints, Smith had another double-double to add to her collection this year, finishing the game with 17 points, 10 rebounds and a steal. Also, Ziegler finished the game with nine points, four assists, four steals and seven rebounds.
The Saints were able to keep the lead even though the Roadrunners guard Kalah Heacock scored 22 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead the Roadrunners.
Teammate center Amanda Douglass scored 12 points and had four rebounds.
Finishing the season in fourth place in the Southern Region with a record of 8-6, the Saints will play Skagit Valley Cardinals from the Northern Region in first-round action Thursday at 2 p.m. at the NWAACC tournament in Kennewick, Wash.
The team will have a week to scout the Cardinals, who sit on a 15-0 recond in conference and 23-1 overall. The Cardinals are led on offense by freshmen guards Brittany Janz and Keri Arendse. Janz is averaging a team best 13.79 points per game.
This is the first time the women have made it to the tournament since the 1997-98 season, when the women lost in the first round.
“It feels great to make it to the NWAACC tournament,” said Davis. “We have worked hard to get to this point and we are ready to make a run at the title which has been our goal the entire season.”