Saints fall at home to rival Clackamas CC

Wednesday was Sophomore Night for the Mt. Hood women’s basketball team, which gave everything it had for its last home game of 2014-15.

The Saints hoped to play spoiler against rival Clackamas Community College, whose NWAC playoff hopes would have ended with a loss.

Despite a tremendous effort from MHCC, the Cougars rained three-pointers all night and finally pulled away to win, 77-68.

The game started off with a lot of intensity from Mt Hood. Not even five minutes into the game, freshman guard/forward Lacey Weddle picked up two quick fouls. The game was tied at the 11:40 mark, when freshman point guard Jesse Morris got her second foul and also had to sit.

Midway through the first half, Saints post Marley Yates got it going, scoring three straight buckets.

Yates was all over the floor, inspiring her teammates. She was playing with a ferocity that was contagious. Morris took a hard charge, freshman guard/forward Delanee Martin was fighting for loose balls on the floor. Freshman forward Madison Weaver fought hard down low, getting rebounds against a much taller opponent.

With six minutes to go in the first half, Martin hit back-to-back threes to give Mt Hood a 27-22 lead.

Unfortunately, the Saints expended too much energy and they began to tire, and Clackamas starting heating up from downtown. (For the night, the Cougars took an unbelievable 44 attempts from three-point-land. Emma Platner took 16 threes herself, hitting five of them.)

With the first half winding down, Clackamas began trapping Mt Hood. Clackamas’ defense quickly gave them a 35-29 edge with 3.2 seconds to go.  Jasmine Walker then hit a buzzer-beating three to end the half, at 38-29 Clackamas.

“They have a group, that any one of them can get hot at any moment,” Saints head coach Tyler Rose had warned before the contest. He said the Cougars lead the entire NWAC in three-pointers attempted, and made. “They have five or six players that have scored 20 or more points in a game. Their offensive strategy is to catch and shoot, catch and shoot.”

Rose’s preview would prove spot-on.

In the second half, the threes just kept coming from Clackamas, but, five minutes in, Mt. Hood trailed only 43-37.

Halfway through the final frame Martin badly injured her ankle, and had to be helped off the court, however.

“This is the first time I have ever had an injury, it’s awfully frustrating,” said Martin.

Without her, MHCC fell behind by nine points rather quickly. The injury seem to deflate her teammates. Although the Saints never gave up, they couldn’t catch up with a hot Clackamas team.

In the end, four Saints scored in double digits. Martin had 14 points, and Yates had 17 points and eight rebounds. Morris had a great game, going 5-for-9 from downtown to record 17 points and 7 assists, and Weddle contributed 10 points.

Freshman post Madison Weaver played extremely well also, scoring eight points and grabbing 10 crucial rebounds for Mt. Hood.

The Saints (5-21 overall, 1-10 in division play) close out their season on Saturday, playing Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Tip-off is at 2 p.m.