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Saints winning streak has team knocking
at playoffs door
The Advocate
After a rocky start to the season, the Saints are heating up just in time to make a playoff run, winning six games in a row including a Wednesday night victory over the Chemeketa Storm 94-73.
The teams were within two points for most of the first half, and it wasn't until the second half that the Saints began to pull ahead. MHCC established a commanding 22-point lead at 74-52 with nine minutes left in the contest after freshman guard Otho Lesure dunked over two Storm defenders, bringing the entire gym to their feet.
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Sophomore guard Delroy Gibbs scored a team high 18 points, while freshman point guard Marcus Moore and freshman forwards Gerron Powell and Spencer Clayton chipped in 15 points. Freshman forward Rei Jensen grabbed a double-double off the bench with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"Delroy was splashing on guys tonight," Lesure said minutes after the game.
The Storm were led by sophomore point guard Tyrone Philips, who scored a game-high 23 points, followed by sophomore shooting guard Trent Roos with 18 points.
A cohesive approach by the Saints may have been the main contributor to such a one-sided game.
Dave Abderhalden, the Storm's head coach, said, "We knew it was going to be a tough game and the Saints were doing really well. They took us out of some things, and we didn't respond well."
Asked what the Saint's approach was coming into this game riding a five-game win streak, Saints head coach Geoff Gibor said, "We were looking to play hard in this game. In the beginning of the season we weren't playing at league level and now were playing smarter."
The Saints came out of the game with 24 points gained from turnovers, while the Storm only scored nine.The Storm shot 8-of-17 from behind the arc; Roos and Philips together connected on seven of them. The Saints were a bit sluggish from the three-point line shooting 9-of-23 from downtown.
Asked how he felt about gaining "the dunk of the game" in their sixth win of the season, Lesure said, "Is this our sixth, or seventh win? I'm losing count we're winning so much."
Lesure also said, "It's crazy that most of the team are freshmen." He said he felt it was a statement game to prove to the NWAACC that the beginning of the regular season was only a fluke. "We wanted to prove to the whole NWAACC that we're as good as we think we are. We aren't cocky. We just think we're that good."
Moore added, "I don't feel like anyone can break our confidence (right now). We play so hard it's going to make us hard to beat for the rest of the season."
Jensen still feels the team has a lot of unfinished business and doesn't want to rely on this win streak, though he enjoys the spot that they're in.
"It looks great on paper but we've got a lot of progress to make before NWAACCs, so we can't settle," Jensen said.
— Jon Fuccillo contributed to this story
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