Saints women ‘turnover’ fourth quarter lead

The Mt. Hood women lost their fifth straight basketball game Wednesday night, this one to Portland Community College, 57-47.

It was a rough loss for the Saints as they played a game they felt like they could have won. At halftime they even led, 32-25, after a big second quarter. Mt. Hood put up over half its total game points in the second quarter alone – 24 points.

After that, though, the offense seemed to run into a wall. It’s a wall that has become all too familiar for the Saints of late, as they are averaging 24-point losses over their winless streak.

Saints forward Chloe Cummins was disappointed that Mt. Hood didn’t pull out a win. In fact, Mt. Hood led by six after three quarters, only to get pounded in the fourth, 23-7.

Cummins said, “I would definitely say that we could have won, we are definitely capable of competing with PCC. We just have to find it within to prevent large runs, like the one that PCC got in the (fourth) quarter.”

Mt. Hood’s offense just hasn’t seemed to be clicking lately. Freshman point guard Jessica Parker, who came to the team as a pass-first minded guard, is the team leading scorer. She’s averaging just over 13 points per game.

That was true Wednesday, as well. Parker led the team with 18 points, while only one other player joined her in scoring double digits. That was forward Courtney Bay, who scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

The Saints also struggled to hold on to the ball against PCC. They committed 33 turnovers, compared to PCC’s 19. For a team that’s already struggling to score, with a 22 percent field goal percentage, turnovers are a deadly problem. To date, Mt. Hood has committed the third most turnovers in the NWAC, out of 34 teams.

Cummins agreed turnovers are a problem.

“We definitely need to focus on taking care of the ball, and not allowing teams to score a majority of their points on second-chance buckets and fast breaks,” she said. “Those are all things we can control and once we focus on minimizing our own errors, I feel things will most definitely turn around.”

MHCC plays Saturday at home against Southwestern Oregon Community College at 2 p.m.

It’s the first of a four-game home stretch in which the Saints will hope to change their luck, having lost seven of their last eight games.