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Lady Saints too strong for first-place Titans
The Advocate
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The Lady Saints knocked off the Lane Community College Titans’ from the top spot in NWAACC to win their final home game 56-48 Wednesday night on Sophomore Night.
The Saints jumped out to an early 25-6 lead before the Titans started making jumpers.
“That is typical Mt. Hood style of basketball,” said Head Coach Larry Davis. “We jump out on teams early and play solid defense.” He said Lane star Sarah Brolsma-Whitfield “came out cold and their shots were not falling.”
But then the Saints let the Titans back in the game, according to Titan Head Coach Greg Sheley.
“They missed shots,” he said. “They got out on us early and went on a dry spell, which was fortunate for us.”
After the Saints let Lane back in the game, according to Davis, he knew what adjustments he needed to make after the Saints let the Titans take a 32-27 lead into halftime.
The Saints fought back to take the lead midway through the second half when the teams started trading shot for shot until the Saints made two big defensive stops to win the game.
“We knew what we had to do,” said Davis. “Coming down the stretch we made our adjustments and when we called a timeout with less then 10 minutes left, I told the girls, ‘If we make a couple of stops we will win the game’ — and we did.”
The Saints traded baskets down the stretch with the score being within four points down to the last minute. “We would go down make one and they would, but we came up with a couple of big stops to ultimately seal the victory,” Davis said.
Sheley said, “We got beat. It’s simple as that. We were ready for them, they played solid defense, they made shots and we just got beat. It happens.”
Sophomore guard Brooklyn Bahme said, “It was a big game. It was nice to finally beat them. We didn’t let up and we fought back to win the game.
The players said they didn’t put much thought into it being their last home game as a Saint.
“I am not thinking much about it,” said Bahme. “I am thinking about NWAACCs and winning.”
Bahme finished the game with 13 points to lead all players, and added five rebounds and a steal. Yates finished with 11 points, three assists and a steal with fellow sophomore Shawnelle Campbell chipping in eight points.
The Titans leading scorer was Brittany May, who shot 50 percent behind the arc and finished with 12 points.
Over the weekend the Saints locked up a berth into the NWAACC basketball Championships March 6-9 in Kennewick, Wash., with a 55-46 home win over Southwestern Oregon Community College Feb. 20.
The Saints had a chance to seal the berth Feb. 19 against Umpqua at home but fell short 83-70 to the Southern Region second-place team.
“We knew we could have locked it up against Umpqua and were a little upset we lost,” said Davis. “But we beat SWOCC which was a grind-out game for us. We really were just saying we cared more about how we played against Umpqua then locking up a berth.”
The Saints are in fourth place in the Southern Region with a record of 9-4 and an overall record of 17-8.
The Saints will play their last regular season game Saturday at Linn-Benton at 4 p.m. The Saints beat the Roadrunners 61-46 on Dec. 20 at home.
“We are looking at it one game at a time so right now we are focused on Linn-Benton,” said Davis. “And then we will focus on NWAACCs.”
The Saints will play either Walla Walla or Yakima Valley in the first round depending on the last game as both teams are tied with 10-1 regular season records. Davis also said the team will rely on their defense to carry them the rest of the way.
“We are the best defensive team in all of NWAACCs and we will just take it one game at a time,” he said.
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