Women lose despite improved 2nd half

By R.C. HALSEY

The Mt. Hood Community College women’s basketball team showed spurts on offense Wednesday night, but were unable to battle from being behind in a 73-61 loss to Portland Community College.

The Saints fell behind 19 points quickly, but that deficit wouldn’t grow for the remainder of the game.

Angela Zielinski, guard, collected two fouls in the first 10 minutes. Head Coach Larry Davis had to take her out of the game for a large portion of the last 10 minutes in the first half to keep her from getting in any worse foul trouble.

They were able to cut the deficit to a nine-point low later in the half and went into halftime down 39-28.

The Saints came out strong to open the second half. They outscored PCC 9-2 in the first few minutes of the half and brought the deficit to four points, but were unable to keep the momentum and fell to 18 points behind.

After five minutes of play in the second half, Zielinski fouled twice more and again had to be taken out. She would return later and finish the game with eight points and three assists.

With 1:18 left in the game the Saints had pulled to within six points but once again were unable to capitalize on the momentum. When the buzzer sounded, they were down by 12 points in a 73-61 loss.

Teena Yates led the team with 25 points. She also had six rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Tristan Naylor had nine points, eight rebounds and three steals.

“This game we worked hard [but] we got complacent some of the time. [We] went on spurts and then went on droughts. We just need to keep the momentum from the tip-off,” said Yates.

The Saints performed better in the second half. They were only outscored by one point in the second. In the first half, they were outscored by 11 points.

“The first half was a little shaky but in the second half I think we did really well. If we would have played that way in the first half we probably would have won. Everyone played hard,” said Zielinski.

On Feb. 18, the Saints played at home against Umpqua Community College and lost 102-54. Yates led the team in scoring with 20 points. Zielinski had eight assists.

Only two games remain for the Saints. Saturday they play at Linn-Benton (4-8) and Wednesday they play at home against the top ranked team in the Southern Region, Clackamas (11-1).