The Mt. Hood Community College Saints made an early and unexpected exit from the winner’s bracket of this year’s NWAACC Championship Tournament, losing to Pierce College in Thursday morning’s first round, 74-73.

The Saints trailed most of the game and cut the deficit to one as time expired.

The Saints are Southern Region co-champions for the third straight year and were picked as co-number one in the seasons last NWAACC/Horizon Air Coaches’ Poll. They entered the tournament favored to go deep into the tournament.

According to Saints head coach Rob Nielson, the game started slow offensively. The Saints went up 2-0 and stayed there for the first four minutes. Once Pierce started scoring, the Saints couldn’t keep up, shooting 9 of 41 from the field in the first half.

“We had our shots,” said the coach. “We got some turnovers and just didn’t take advantage.”

According to Nielson, poor shooting in the first half yielded more problems than simply a low score for the Saints. Nielson said, “That horrible first half allowed them to get some confidence. We made some runs at them in the second half but just couldn’t quite get it done.”

The team was disappointed with the loss, according to the coach, because they expected to go deep into the tournament. After losing Friday night’s playoff game to the Chemeketa Storm, 77-65, sophomore forward Corey Lowe said that despite the loss the team is still confident it can beat anyone in the tournament, including the Storm. "Wednesday’s (February 23) game we knew we had to win, and we did," said Lowe. "Friday we wanted to win and get that top seed, but it wasn’t a must win. We feel like, at the tournament they’re all games you have to win. And in that situation I think we will."

Though disappointed, Nielson said the team will still be playing hard in what is left of the tournament for them. “Fifth place is the best we can do, but we’re still gonna try for it,” said the coach.

The Saints are scheduled to play at 10 a.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday’s 2 p.m. game between Bellevue and Treasure Valley. Results of that game were not available at press time.

Mt. Hood lost to the Chemeketa Storm Friday, 77-65, ending a home winning streak of over two years.

The Saints led by five at the half but were unable to hold off the Storm and forward Riley Luettgerodt, who led all scorers with 26 points.

Saints head coach Rob Nielson said, "We just couldn’t catch the breaks and didn’t shoot very well in the second half."

The Saints were led by Scott Zea with 16 points and six rebounds. Guards Gregg Barlow had 11 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals. Sophomore guard Jamal Cooke finished with eight points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.