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Photos by Devin Courtright/The Advocate
The men's basketball team celebrates highlight play in Feb. 16 victory over Chemeketa. The team hopes to translate that energy into a strong showing at the NWAACC tournament.
Saints head to NWAACCs as No. 2 seed,
face Highline
The Advocate
Second-year head coach Geoff Gibor avoided a heart attack Saturday night after his team slid by the Umpqua Riverhawks with a 72-70 victory.
However it was just what the doctor ordered – an NWAACC championship berth.
The team went from grinding their teeth to grabbing the No. 2 seed in the Southern Region standings, all in a 24-hour time period.
The Saints now have their work cut out for them as they will square off against Western Region No. 3 seed the Highline Thunderbirds (18-7, 11-5) in round one action at 8 a.m. Saturday.
Gibor is now two-for-two in playoff appearances as a head coach. This year provided some down-to-the-wire excitement that shook the entire South. It came to sudden death on the final day of the season as the Saints won a four-team tiebreaker due to the luck of the draw at the beginning of the season.
"We felt like we had a really good understanding of the tiebreaker process," Gibor said Tuesday afternoon. "But we really didn't think we would come out with four teams tied for second place. That just shows the parity in our league. Pretty remarkable."
The Saints tied the Linn-Benton Roadrunners, Chemeketa Storm and Lane Titans with 8-6 records in Southern Region action and the four teams split in head-to-head action during the regular season. At the beginning of the season, each team was given a random number in case this scenario occurred. The Saints had the highest number among the four teams. Each season the numbers rotate among the teams, giving each team a fair shot at avoiding
extra games at the end of the season right before playoffs.
The Roadrunners had the next highest number and will represent the South as the No. 3 seed. The Storm and Titans were forced to play a tiebreaker game Monday night for the No. 4 seed and the Storm pulled out an 86-66 victory.
"Just the idea of four teams finishing with the same record is pretty crazy," Gibor said. "It's just a good feeling for us to have gotten in with such a slow start."
Sophomore shooting guard Delroy Gibbs said things still haven't settled in. But he feels the minute his sneakers touch the court, it will be back to business as usual. "It might not sink in until I walk into the gym," Gibbs said Sunday night.
Sophomore Gerron Powell said , "It's time to see who's the best. Wewant it themost and want to prove we're the best."
The Saints have had some experience this year with Western Region teams.
They went 2-1 in games with the West; all three games were against teams in the bottom four of the nine team conference. They beat the Centralia Trailblazers twice and lost to last year's runner up at NWAACCs – the Lower Columbia Red Devils. The Thunderbirds did not play teams from the South.
Like the Saints, the Thunderbirds have a spread offense with three guys who score in double figures – 6-6 sophomore forward PJ Bolte (13.7 points per game), 6-2 freshman guard Ira Haywood (10.8) and 6-4 freshman forward Travis Miller (10.4).
"They're a really good offensive rebounding team," Gibor said about Highline's advantages. "They've got some shooters and some all-league players on that team. We need to defend PJ (Bolte) and keep him off the glass. We just need to continue rebounding well."
The Thunderbirds rank third overall in the NWAACC with 43.6 rebounds per game, while the Saints are seventh with 41.8.
The Saints will rely on the same rotations that got them here in the first place. They will look to use the quickness and sharp shooting of their guards along with the big bodies down low. Freshman Gerron Powell is playing with a chip on his shoulder. He feels as though the Southern Region got it wrong when selecting "bigs" for the All-Southern Region first and second teams. "None of our bigs got votes for the awards in league. That's disrespect to us," Powell said. "We're fired up to play (now)."
The Saints had an offense that was spread over the maps, with six guys averaging nine points or more. Freshman point guard Marcus Moore averaged a team-best 12.9 points, 4.0 assists and 2.3 steals. Freshman forward Spencer Clayton is slightly behind averaging 11.4 points, along with a team high 7.7 rebounds. Freshmen Rei Jensen (10.0), Gibbs (9.7) Coletun Tarr (9.5) and Otho Lesure (9.0) were the other four that scored at least nine points per game.
Point of emphasis heading into Saturday's game with the Thunderbirds is handling the ball better throughout the four-day tournament. Gibor knows teams will feed off points scored on turnovers. In the last three regular season games, the Saints gave up 84 points by handing the ball over to their opponents due to poor ball-handling decisions.
NWAACC statistics show the Saints have committed more turnovers than any other team in the league this season, with an average of 19.3 per game.
"We can't turn the ball over like we have been," Gibor said. "I would like to keep that number right around 10 but if they keep it in the low teens I would be fine with that.
"We're (also) trying to shore up our defense. "We've been really trying to address that. I just hope that we were battle-tested (during the season), because there in the end, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win every single game after the slow start."
If the Saints beat the Thunderbirds in first round, they will play Sunday at 2 p.m. against the winner of the Big Bend Vikings (No. 1 in the Eastern Region) and the Whatcom Orcas (No. 4 in the Northern Region). If they lose, they play the loser of the above game at 8 a.m. Sunday.
Gibor knows the NWAACC tournament presents his team a new challenge. The name alone has his players more focused now that they have achieved the goal of making it this far.
"It's hard to prepare them," Gibor said. "They're as prepared as they can be without having played there before. We can't even begin to duplicate what they will experience once they get there."
The only returner from a season ago is sophomore guard Jake Rickert; he's the only Saint with any NWAACC experience. The Saints placed seventh last season in a loss to the Walla Walla Warriors. Rickert is more excited this year and feels the team has what it takes to be a title contender.
"We're really young but this will be a great experience for everyone," Rickert said. "Playing in the arena is different but I think the fellas will do fine. I can feel a championship coming our way.
"The arena is a lot like our court at Hood. It is big and I think we have a big advantage but we got to take it game by game."
Asked if anything less of a championship would be a disappointment, Rickert said, "Yes. I know we have a great chance of winning it but it depends on whether or not we want to show up and play.
"I don't have much to say. We all know what we have to do to get the job done and bring home a championship."
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