Men’s basketball stays strong during break

Three straight razor-thin losses have cooled a red-hot run by the Mt. Hood men’s basketball team to begin the season, but optimism remains.

A 6-2 winning record over the Christmas break pushed the Saints to a No. 1 ranking in the NWAACC league coaches’ poll. But three tough defeats – by a combined 11 points – has pushed them back into the pack.

The most recent loss came Wednesday night in Salem, where Chemeketa Community College beat MHCC 87-83 in overtime, outscoring the Saints nine to five in the extra period.

Mt. Hood shot 10-17 from three-point range compared to Chemeketa’s 5-for-21, but it wasn’t enough. Sophomore Landon Rushton had a team-high 22 points, shooting 9-for-14 from the field and 4-for-4 from beyond the arc. Second-year players Brock Otis, Blake Updike and Mac Johnson also scored in double figures with 19, 13 and 11 points, respectively. Johnson also added 17 rebounds to notch a double double.

The loss followed another tough defeat last weekend. In an exciting back-and-forth game decided in the last seconds, Mt. Hood dropped its Southern Region league opener on Saturday with an 81-80 home loss to Southwestern Oregon Community College.

With the two teams enjoying their best start in years and having recorded similar statistics, the contest lived up to expectations of a close matchup. Ultimately, Southwestern survived largely by scoring 26 points off 22 MHCC turnovers.

The Lakers arrived in Gresham with the NWAACC’s third-best offense, scoring 94.5 points per game. But the Saints countered by out-rebounding them by 20, and held them to their second-lowest scoring total of the season.

“Any time a team scores 26 points off your turnovers, it makes it hard to win,” said MHCC head coach Geoff Gibor. “Our guys played hard and competed, and as a coach, that is what you want to see out of your team. We just came up a little bit short.”

Top scorers for the Saints were sophomore forward Otis with 17 points in 37 minutes of playing time, while Johnson had a double-double with 17 points and 17 rebounds from the center position.

Gibor credited his top performers: “Brock and Mac have been great for us this year. They are both tough, physical players who give 110 percent all the time.”

Rushton and Updike also contributed. Rushton scored 16 points and went 2-for-2 from the three-point line, while Updike finished with 13 points.

The first half was virtually even, with MHCC trailing 39-38 at halftime. It was more of the same in the second half, with the Saints’ turnovers proving the narrow difference.

“We haven’t had big problems with turnovers all season. We did not execute extremely well, and they (SWOCC) capitalized on our mistakes,” said Gibor.

The Saints shot 47 percent from the floor, while Southwestern shot 45 percent. But the Lakers made more three-pointers, with 18 in all.

The defeats haven’t knocked the shine off a stellar December, however. Mt. Hood went 6-2 defeating Blue Mountain and Walla Walla Community Colleges and won two tournaments, including the Portland X-Over Tournament and the Lassen College Tournament, the latter played in Susanville, Calif. One of those losses was to number one NWAACC seed Clark College that went to double overtime and the Saints ended up losing to the Penguins 95-89.

Johnson is 15^th in the NWAACC in scoring and third in rebounds. This week he was nominated for NWAACC player of the week, an honor that went to freshman Dominque McClendon of Everett College.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., Mt. Hood will host Southern Division rival Lane Community College.

Gibor says positive things should help his team bounce back from recent close defeats. “We have to play Mt. Hood basketball, just go out and make plays happen. We have a lot of options with our depth,” he said. “League play is a grind. You just gotta take care of business each day.”

On Wednesday, the Saints travel to North Portland to play PCC at 7:30 p.m.