Basketball breaks in the new semester

Men’s and women’s basketball wraps up the break and prepares for the final stretch

By Peter Melling /// Sports Editor 

Basketball 2:6:15
Photo courtesy of LC Athletics

Now that Winter Break has ended, the men’s and women’s basketball teams have hit the heart of their seasons. In between Dec. 21 and Jan. 16, the men’s team has gone 5-3 and the women’s team has gone 3-5. What does their performance over the break say about their progress, and how does it shape the outlook for each team’s season?

The men’s team has benefitted greatly from consistently strong performances by veterans. One of these players is Carl Appleton (’15), who won a Northwest Conference Student-Athlete of the Week award on Jan. 20 after averaging 13.5 points per game and eight rebounds per game the previous week. During the break, he posted a stat line of 12/1.875/9.375. He is among team leaders like Serg Ovchinnikov (’16), Bradley Carter (’15) and Cannen Roberson (’17), who had break stat lines of 13.875/0.875/4, 7.75/0.5/2.875 and 9.5/1/3.83, respectively. The bench also maintained its offensive production, averaging 15.75 ppg.

The women’s team has also received the benefits of veteran production. Ayisat Afolabi (’17) netted herself a NWC Student-Athlete of the Week award on Jan. 13, following a week in which she averaged 12 points per game and 14 rebounds per game. Her total stat line for the break was 11.375/1.25/8.25. Afolabi joins other team leaders like Sarah Anderson (’16), Casey Zinn (’16), and first-year Lauren Wood (’18), who have posted stat lines of 6.25/1.5/2.25, 3.125/0.125/4.75 and 8.875/1.125/6.75 during the break, respectively. Bench contributions to the offensive continue to impress, as they averaged 19.375 ppg over the eight Winter Break games.

Despite both teams getting into a bit of a groove over the break, both the men’s and women’s squads have plateaued with the start of the new semester. After completing the fifth game of their win streak, the men have lost two straight games to the conference-leading Whitworth University Pirates (68-60) and the Whitman College Missionaries (87-58). The women have lost five straight games, going back to the last game of the break (in spite of Afolabi knocking down 20 rebounds against Linfield College and an 18-point comeback against Whitman College).

Going into the last two weeks of the season, both teams will have a chance to get back on the rails. Both teams have six games left against conference opponents, evenly split between home and the road. Key matchups include a road matchup between the women’s team and the conference-leading George Fox University Bruins on Feb. 20, and a men’s home game against the Pacific University (Oregon) Boxers on Feb. 7.

If you cannot attend the games, live video steams are available from portal.stretchinternet.com/lclark.

 

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