By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Chemeketa Community College Men’s Basketball team pieced together a complete game Monday night against Lane.
It was passion, it was anger and it was motivation coming off of the last few games where they were able to play a strong first 20 minutes, only to see games like Portland and Clackamas slip away from them in the final 20 minutes.
But, on Monday night, they harnessed all of that emotion from those last two games and took it to the court against the Titans. At halftime, they led Lane 40-32 and were shooting 58.1 percent from the field, making 18-of-31 shots that they attempted out of the gate.
And unlike the second halves of recent times, the Storm kept going.
Lane got the game to within three, 49-44, only to see Chemeketa push their lead to 59-48 off a 10-4 run. That run that helped create that double-digit lead for the Storm, it didn’t fade as Chemeketa kept the Titans at bay for the 85-73 victory at home in NWAC South Region play.
“This was big. Hopefully, we can build off of it and make a run,” said Stayton-grad Gabe Wigginton. “Pure motivation to win. We had a desire. We wanted it so bad. We earned it, we’ve been working really hard, pushing each other, and overall, it was just a necessary thing. All week, we’ve been going hard in practice and fighting and doing all the necessary things. We came together and got a good 40. It was some pent-up anger from a couple of losses that we believed that we should’ve had.”
Wigginton finished with 13 points in the win, one of three Chemeketa players to have scored in double-figures along with Kenton Wright with his 16 points and Cooper Gobel, who led the squad with 18 points.
Kaden Holm led the Storm with nine rebounds. Kellen Sande led Chemeketa with three steals. The Storm head to Mount Hood to play the Saints on Wednesday before returning back to salem to host Linn-Benton at 4 pm.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
