Riverhawk Men Take 3rd in League in Overtime Thriller
WINCHESTER – The Umpqua Community College men’s basketball team finished the regular season in dramatic fashion with a thrilling, 86-81, overtime victory against the visiting Mt. Hood Saints Saturday. The win secured the No. 3 seed out of the southern region for the Riverhawks in the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament. The top four teams from each region will meet in Kennewick, Washington Saturday, March 7, for the right to play for the NWAC championship.
“It was a great game, tonight,” head coach Daniel Leeworthy said. “I thought the crowd gave us good energy towards the end of the game. We were behind all game and we caught up, forced overtime and got down again. We showed that mental toughness that we’ve been stressing for so long with this team. I’m just so proud of our guys tonight.”
Umpqua trailed throughout the majority of the ball game falling behind, 66-56, with five minutes to play in regulation. With 3:18 remaining, freshman Jeremy Smith scored eight of his 15 points over the next 40 seconds to give the Riverhawks their first lead of the second half, 69-68. A Saints free throw would tie the game at, 69-69, forcing overtime.
“He (Smith) hit a couple of big shots for us,” Leeworthy said. “He had two clutch three’s that were big for us in those final moments of the second half. It was definitely his best game of the season. He is one of the leaders on this team and came up with the big plays when we needed him to.”
With 1:31 remaining in overtime, Mt. Hood stretched its lead to, 81-77, and appeared to be pulling away from the Riverhawks. A pair of free throws from UCC’s Jordan Madrid-Andrews narrowed the Saints lead to, 81-79. After an exchange of possessions, Umpqua’s Mikko Balmes buried a 3-pointer with 28 seconds remaining to give the Riverhawks an, 82-81, lead that they would not relinquish.
With 1:31 remaining in overtime, Mt. Hood stretched its lead to, 81-77, and appeared to be pulling away from the Riverhawks. A pair of free throws from UCC’s Jordan Madrid-Andrews narrowed the Saints lead to, 81-79. After an exchange of possessions, Umpqua’s Mikko Balmes buried a 3-pointer with 28 seconds remaining to give the Riverhawks an, 82-81, lead that they would not relinquish.
“Tough game tonight,” Mt. Hood head coach Geoff Gibor said. “Anytime you go on the road it’s difficult. This is a tough enviornment to play in and their guys played well. Jordan (Madrid-Andrews) killed us on the glass tonight. He did such a good job. He is a big athletic kid who is relentless and he proved a point tonight. He had eight straight points in overtime and I’m pretty sure his stats of nine rebounds he was listed as are not correct.”
Second overall in the NWAC in rebounding at 10.56 per game, Madrid-Andrews is one of only three players in the NWAC to average a double-double per game. Madrid-Andrews finished with 17 points and nine rebounds.
“I take a lot of pride in rebounding,” Madrid-Andrews said. “It’s something that’s a big help to our team, and rebounding is something I love to do. This was a big win for us. We really battled it tonight and responded well to the adversity that we faced.”
Madrid-Andrews and Smith weren’t the only Riverhawks to turn in solid performances for Umpqua. Titus Rice scored 21 points, grabbed nine boards and dished out four assists. Mikko Balmes contributed 13 points, while Joe Baldi add 10. Umpqua had four players score in double figures.
“I felt we executed pretty well tonight,” Rice said. “Towards the end of the ball game we really started hitting our foul shots and we were able to get the win.”
UCC has tough task moving forward to the first round of the NWAC tournament. Umpqua is slated to play No. 2 ranked Edmonds (24-5 overall, 12-2 north) in the tournaments opening round next Saturday in Kennewick.
“We are going to need to really go over the scouting report for those guys,” Madrid-Andrews said “If we are going to be ready, we need to have a great week of practice and treat those practices as if they were a game.”
MT. HOOD (81) – Jamal Muhammad 7-18 7-8 24, Brown 1-5 1-2 3, Kennedy 4-7 1-1 10, Marandyuk 5-10 7-8 18, Anderson 1-4 1-1 3, Brown 3-5 0-0 6, Reoder 1-4 0-0 0,Brown 3-5 0-0 6, Roeder 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-63 18-21 81.
UMPQUA (86) – Titus Rice 7-18 6-9 21, Balmes 4-10 2-2 13, Smith 5-12 3-5 15, Madrid-Andrews 5-7 7-9 17, Porter 1-12 0-1 2, Medak 3-4 0-0 6, Baldi 3-6 2-2 10, Richardson 1-4 0-1 2. Totals 29-73 19-28 86.
HALFTIME SCORE – Mt. Hood 34-33.
3-Point Shots – Hood 5-9 (Muhammad 3-5, Kennedy 1-1, Marandyuk 1-1), UCC 9-22 Smith 3-5, Balmes 3-7, Baldi 2-2, Rice 1-4). Fouls – Fouls – Hood 24, UCC 18. Rebounds – Hood 49 (Muhammad 9), UCC 47 (Madrid-Andrews, Rice 9). Assists – Assists – Hood 10 (Brown 4), UCC 11 (Rice 4). Turnovers – Hood 8, UCC 7.