Kersey Wilcox drives past a Clackamas defender on Jan. 21. (Photo by Eugene Johnson / The Torch)
Titans Head Coach Greg Sheley said it best.
“Not necessarily the most pretty game by either team,” Sheley said after defeating the Clackamas Cougars 71-68 Saturday night. “Both teams played really hard.”
Sheley and his team walked off Titan Court all smiles as they improved to 13-4 and 3-1 in the Southern Region, while the Cougars fell to 4-1 in league and 15-2 overall.
Cougars Head Coach Jim Martineau credited the Titans for pulling off the victory but it left a bitter taste in his mouth after leading for most of the game.
“We didn’t shoot it very well in the second half. We were just 2-of-17 from the 3-point line in the second half,” Martineau said after the game. “We had a chance to win it, so it says something for us. It was a real battle. It was an intense battle as it usually is down here. Two pretty good teams getting after each other.”
The two teams combined for 46 turnovers (26 for Clackamas and 20 for the Titans) and neither team scored a basket until the 16:41 mark.
Freshman guard Kersey Wilcox, the Titans most consistent scorer finished the contest with 27 points on 8-of-22 shooting from the field, including 5-of-8 from three-point range. 18 of her 27 points came in the second half.
Wilcox and freshman guard Madison Moore shot well from three-point land. The two finished 9-of-17 from behind the arc. Moore exited the game with 16 points, while freshman forward Megan Shields chipped in with 16 of her own and 10 rebounds.
Shields was happy with her third double-double in a row. But she was more excited with the end result.
“When the team is all working together it normally happens because it’s just flowing and I can get the ball a lot easier than when everything is out of control and when the offense isn’t being ran correctly,” Shields said. “My guards are awesome. They get the ball into me all the time. It’s really exciting that I got a double-double in this game.”
Sheley had a gut feeling that the Cougars were going to challenge their 3-point game.
“We knew going into this game that they were going to dare us to shoot the three,” Sheley said of the Cougars defense. “We talked about it all week. That was a must. We hit more three’s than we have been averaging and they hit less. This was a big step up for us.”
The Titans finished the game 11-of-26 from downtown, while the Cougars just connected on 8-of-35.
“The last three games they have struggled from out there,” Martineau said of the Titans 3-point shooting. “Even the first half they were 3-of-10 (from the 3-point line). They come out the second half 8-of-16. They did a good job tonight. If you got to lose a game, a road game at Lane isn’t the worst place.”
The Titans trailed for most of the game and were down 37-26 at the half. But the team came out of the locker room with a new intensity and finally tied the game at 44-44 with 13:43 remaining in the game.
Wilcox would later hit two crucial free throws to put the Titans up 61-56 with 4:58 remaining. But the Cougars wouldn’t go away. With 39.6 seconds left on the clock the Cougars trailed 69-68. Again Wilcox found herself at the charity stripe where she drained two more free throws making it a 71-68 with less than 10 seconds on the clock. The Titans would hold onto the lead for the win.
Wilcox finished the game 6-of-7 from the free throw line.
“I’m so glad those gals found a way to get that win,” Sheley said. “At half time we just talked about winning the second half. We got to go out and win the second half. We really cut into that lead really quick. Big win for us.”
Wilcox added, “We played Clackamas already in a tournament and we lost by one point. So of course there is going to be a rivalry. When we went down in the locker room we knew that we had to dig ourselves out of that hole. We all had to go out there with confidence and shoot with confidence.
Shields said that the team refused to go away, especially after losing to the Chemeketa Storm last weekend at home 67-57.
“We are not losing here twice in a row,” Shields said. “I think we all dug down really deep and came back out with a lot of heart. We refused to lose. Sheley kept telling us to just refuse to lose.”
The Titans host the Umpqua Riverhawks (11-7, 4-1) on Wednesday Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m.
-Lindsey Kidwell contributed to this story
