By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

OREGON CITY, Ore.–  We’ve heard of the Fab 5, but how about the Freshman 10?

No, not the joke we make to people starting in college and weight gain, but the 10 Freshman that Clackamas Community College Men’s Basketball have on their team this year.

And their succeeding.  5-1 to be exact as they get ready to embark on their next big challenge at the Everett Crossover Tournament in Washington this weekend.

But, up to this point, Head Coach Clif Wegner is impressed with how his team has progressed with the young team they have considering that they’ve had four of their first six games on the road.

“(I’m) impressed because that’s something that’s how to do, you got to learn how to do it being a college player,” said Wegner.  “Got to learn how to travel, take care of yourself, live in a hotel for a few days.  Get out of a routine and yet still focus on the business at hand.   So it’s a growing process, learning how to play games on back-to-back nights is a growing process.  Learning how to play three games in a row, another growing process.

“And for us we got a lot of guys who played High School Basketball in Oregon so they’re just now learning about the shot clock and how to manage possession in the 30 second shot clock and how to manage that in a close ball game.  But that’s all the growing process, but that’s good, we feel good thus far.”

This team’s been in close games, Highline (89-83) to start the season and more recently Blue Mountain in a 63-60 win.  The lone loss, a 94-81 loss to Pierce CC while at their tournament over Thanksgiving Break.

Well, as fate would have it, the Cougars will have an chance this weekend up in Everett, Washington for redemption against the Raiders on the second day of the tournament.

But, that’s just one of three tough test for this young team this weekend as they look to carry this early season mojo into the tournament

“It’ll be interesting, we played Pierce on (their home) floor and lost by 10 a couple of weeks ago, so now we’ll get to play them on a neutral floor so that’ll be a good thing at on how much we’ve grown in three weeks, that’ll be a good measuring stick,” said Wegner.  “And then Big Ben, traditionally one of the best teams in the NWAC, a top notch program and they’re very good this year and Everett is ranked in the Top Eight as well so, really, really best of NWAC basketball for us and we’re going to find out  a lot of our team and how tough we are.”

For Wegner, he knows winning this weekend would help a ton to continue this mojo into their game versus the Alumni on December 21 and their own tournament during December 28-30 timeframe, but knows too that being competitive will be just as great.

“Well win,” laughed Wegner.  “If you go up there and you win, you develop more confidence.  Winning breeds confidence, confidence breeds success, success breeds winning.  It’s a cycle like that.  I think if we go up there and we play, win or lose, if we play three good, close, top competitive ball games with those three teams we’re going to feel pretty good about it.”

Clackamas will open the Everett Crossover Tournament Friday at 5pm at Everett, Washington versus Big Bend.

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