Jaynee Tanner went off for 32 points and 11 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as the South Puget Sound Community College women’s basketball team lost to Umpqua 75-67 Saturday in the NWAC Tournament Sweet 16 in Pasco.
The Clippers crawled back from a 31-point deficit to make it a single-digit game in the fourth quarter, but the early hole was too much to dig out of in a season-ending defeat.
Umpqua was white-hot in the first quarter. After both teams went back and forth scoring in the first three minutes, the RiverHawks blew the game open with an 18-0 run to take a 24-5 lead with a minute left in the frame. SPSCC was held scoreless for over six minutes, missing all four of its field goal attempts, all four of its free throws and turning the ball over four times in that span.
Dakota Carson finally stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer, but Umpqua held a 24-8 lead through one quarter. The RiverHawks scored the first 13 points of the second quarter, building a 29-point lead off of a total 31-3 run since it was 6-5 Umpqua. Umpqua’s biggest lead came with 5:57 left in the first half as a Kaelyn Shoemaker layup made it a 31-point game.
Only two points were scored in the game for a three-minute span before SPSCC began to string shots together. Brooklyn Fuller drilled a 3-pointer in the final minute of the first half, with the Clippers trailing 43-23.
SPSCC opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run to crawl within 13 points. Tanner, who only made one field goal in the first half, went to work in the second half, scoring an and-one layup and then scoring the Clippers’ final nine points of the third quarter. Umpqua was still ahead by 16 entering the fourth.
Tanner and Mia Martinez went on an 11-2 run by themselves to begin the final stanza, cutting the RiverHawks’ lead to just seven. But seven was as close as the Clippers would get, as Umpqua rebuilt a double-digit lead in the final minutes of the fourth. The game slowed down significantly with both teams spending time at the free throw line, but Umpqua ultimately prevailed to advance to the Elite 8 and end SPSCC’s season.
Tanner, the NWAC West Region MVP during the regular season, scored just two points in the first half and scored 30 in the second half alone, including 14 in the third quarter and 16 in the fourth. She shot 9 of 16 from the floor and a perfect 13 of 13 from the free-throw line. Martinez added 18 points and four assists, while Dakota Carson supplied nine points.
SPSCC finishes the season with a 19-8 record. The team only has three sophomores — Dakota Carson, Autumn Breedlove and Jaynee Tanner.
