Lady Saints come up short against Clackamas

On Wednesday, the Mt. Hood women took on the Clackamas Cougars in a home game the Lady Saints were hoping to win.

At half time, the Cougars led by 12 points, 31-19.

There was no second-half comeback, either, in what became a 65-39 loss for the Saints (2-16 overall, 0-5 South Region).

“It has been a tough season,” said Tyler Rose, first-year head coach. Despite injuries that have the team playing short-handed, “our girls are fighting through the season and battling every day,” he said.

“Adversity has been our biggest opponent this year, (but) we continue to believe in each other when we step on the court,” he said.

Mt. Hood put up 20 points in the second half, but continued to lose ground to the Cougars, falling by 26 points total.

“Our last few games have been pretty close the first 10-15 minutes, so we know we can compete with our competition,” Rose said.

“It’s a matter of putting a full 40 minutes together,” he said. Turnovers remain a key problem. “We play well when we keep our heads up and move the ball, it’s the times that we put our heads down that the pressure mounts.”

The Lady Saints also were outrebounded by the Cougars, 56-36.

A bright spot was the solid play of freshman standouts Marley Yates (13 points, six rebounds) and Taylor Scott (nine points and five rebounds).

“The girls remain confident and our season isn’t over, even though our record is what it is,” Rose said. “We will be back stronger next week with a few players returning from injury, which will help.”

That next opportunity comes when the Saints travel to Umpqua in Roseburg for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday.