Women Saints face toughest battle yet

The Mt. Hood women were understaffed and overworked last weekend at the Walla Walla Warrior Classic, in southeast Washington.

Thanks largely to a slew of injuries, the Saints went 0-2, losing to the Columbia Basin Hawks 81-62, then to the Walla Walla Community College Warriors, 64-27.

Mt. Hood played with just six players in the tournament. It almost felt like last year, when the women’s team had just five healthy players for nearly the entire season, the “Fab Five”.

This time, freshman guard Alexa Mulford was out with a broken nose and concussion. Sophomore wing Chloe Cummins was out with a broken rib and nose. Freshman wing Isabella Olvera was down with a lower ankle sprain. And freshman post Allison Primeau was hurt with a sprained ankle, although she’s hoping to be back playing next week.

All this left Mt. Hood to battle over the weekend with just one player to come off the bench. It definitely had a major impact.

“We lost the first game because we were dog tired,” said Primeau. They (the Hawks) had a really nice bench. And after a while we just couldn’t keep up.”

The box score tells the story perfectly. In the first game the Saints entered halftime trailing Columbia Basin only 39-32. The game was far from over, and Mt. Hood proved that in the third quarter, pulling to within four points to start the fourth. That’s when things got out of hand. The Saints’ legs were tired and their bodies were done. They got outscored 25-10 in the fourth, to lose 81-62.

Still, not all the blame can go on Mt. Hood’s lack of a bench, as the Saints committed 25 turnovers. Freshman point guard Jessica Parker explained why: “They were coached well on defense and we were not prepared for the kind of ‘D’ they played. We hadn’t seen it yet.” She said the Saints need to focus on executing plays better in the future.

Game Two against Walla Walla didn’t go much better than the first for Mt. Hood. The Saints committed 19 turnovers and trailed big at halftime, 38-5. The Saints never came back from that large deficit, but did close out the game scoring 22 points in the second half, to lose 64-27.

Freshman point guard Brooke Plecker pointed to the fact that the Saints are missing two key parts.

“Two of our pretty dominant players were out. Chloe usually adds like 12 or 15 points and she was out. And Alexa is pretty defensively solid,” said Plecker. “We didn’t have our two intimidators that why we lost.” She added that turnovers were also a problem, “too high for our ratio of points. We had way too many turnovers.”

According to Plecker and Parker, Monday’s practice was tougher after the rough weekend. The Saints worked on trying to deal with defensive pressure.

Parker said, “We were more intense. We talked more, and (head) Coach (John Hawley) pushed us where we needed to be pushed.” She explained that when the Saints talk more as a team on the court, they play a lot better. They are going to use this as a learning experience, so next time when they get pressured by the defense they will communicate, helping to prevent turnovers.

Freshman point guard Brooke Plecker wants to see the team carry itself stronger. “We need to keep our composure, and try to lead the team and be more boisterous,” she said of the point guard duo.

It’s early still in the season, and NWAC conference play doesn’t begin until Jan. 4 against Clark College. Which means the Saints, now 4-3 on the year, have a lot of time to grow as a team. The hope is they don’t have a repeat of last year’s Fab Five, a possibility that right now does seem to have some of the players a little concerned.

Plecker said she feels positive about the team’s outlook. “I think it depends on each and everybody’s will power,” she said. “What do they want to do? I think we could be more than .500 this season.”