Mt. Hood men keep playoff hopes alive

The Saints’ entire basketball season was on the line Wednesday night, and they came up huge.

Mt. Hood’s men knew if it they were to have any chance to make the playoffs, they were going to need to win, and they did, downing last-place Lane Community College, 94-80, in Eugene.

The win puts Mt. Hood in seventh place, and just one game back of fourth place in the NWAC South division, the last spot for playoffs, with three games remaining.

The team was ecstatic after the victory, but knows the battle has barely begun.

“We’re excited. We know our backs are against the wall, and that we have to win the rest of our games,” said Saints forward Luke Anderson. “So, we’re just focused on taking it one game at a time.”

Wednesday night, Anderson played a huge role in the win, scoring 17 points, pulling down nine rebounds, grabbing four steals, and adding a block. He was a beast out there, in a game that was vital for the team.

Guard Elijah Fuller pointed to the team’s ability to move the ball as a key in their victory.

“We made most of our free throws and hit the open man. We played very unselfish,” Fuller said. The team hit 16-of-19 free-throws, compared to Lane’s 8-of-19. That’s an eight-point difference, half of the Saints’ 16-point winning margin.

Fuller also played a big part in the win. He hit four threes, scored 17 points, and came away with four steals.

The game was tight at halftime, all tied at 38. But the Saints got going in the second half and were able to run away with it.

Anderson pointed to the Saints’ second-half defense as the main reason they won. He said, “We picked our defense up. We created some turnovers which allowed us to get out in transition and get some easy buckets. We applied some full-court pressure, which sped them up, forcing some turnovers.”

Point guard John Tibbs said, “Huge win tonight and even though we see the other teams we are neck-and-neck with winning as well, that’s just giving us more and more motivation to keep grinding.

“We have been emphasizing that playing team basketball is our best way to achieve our goal, and that each individual’s sacrifice is essential to success,” he said.

In the playoff chase, Mt. Hood is in a four-way race for the fourth spot. Linn-Benton, Chemeketa, and Portland are currently tied for fourth with a record of 7-6. The positive news for Saints fans is that Mt. Hood plays Linn-Benton Saturday at 4 p.m. in Albany, then they host Portland at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Even if they win both those games, they’ll still need Portland to lose one more game, and Chemeketa to lose two of their last three games.

While it’s unlikely to all fall into place, the Saints know there’s still a chance.

“We feel really good since we know Linn-Benton had one more win on us right now, and we play them Saturday,” said Fuller. He pointed to how Mt. Hood can win that game. “They like to shoot threes so we need to close out hard on them and also we need to force them to drive,” he said.

“We need to play solid team defense and hit free throws and whatever happens after that we will deal with.”