Charity accepted: Clippers sink free throws and Hawks

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Oregon’s Justine Jones (3) struggles for the ball with Amboy’s Ashley Ferguson during Wednesday’s game in the Oregon Tip-Off Tournament. (Chris Padgett/cpadgett@svnmail.com)

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OREGON – Courtney Olson took a deep breath and told herself she wasn’t going to miss another free throw. Then she and her Amboy teammates executed that plan perfectly.

The Clippers won their season opener 41-27 at the Oregon Tip-Off Tournament against the host Hawks, hitting 19 of their 22 free throws and only missing one in the final three quarters.

“I used to be a horrible free-throw shooter,” Olson said,  “but we do a lot of free-throw conditioning. We’ll shoot two at a time, and if you miss one you have to run a down-and-back. That gets to you, really makes it easy to focus on making them.”

Amboy (1-0) was the aggressor, and it showed in the stat line. Oregon (0-1) struggled to get into the flow of its offense, and defensively did too much chasing and not enough anticipating.

The Hawks committed 18 fouls to Amboy’s eight and missed both free throws they attempted.

“Our fouling got us in trouble,” Oregon guard Anna Corcoran (8 points, 3 assists, 2 steals) said. “We hustle so hard trying to come back, then we let them shoot free throws and they make all of them. You kind of feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ll never get any closer.’ “

Both teams started slowly, feeling out each other and themselves in the early going. The Clippers made the game’s lone run, finishing the first half on a 10-0 spurt to turn a 16-12 deficit into a 22-16 lead in the final 4:21 of the second quarter.

Amboy used it’s defense to get things going on the offensive end, turning Oregon miscues – the Hawks had 22 turnovers in the game – into points at the other end to kick-start the surge.

“Our defense definitely picked us up,” said Olson, who led all players with 21 points, nine rebounds, five steals and four blocks. “Once we started getting stops and then scoring on the other end, our energy level really picked up and got us going.”

“We got some nice steals, and those breakaway layups really helps your shooting percentage,” Amboy coach Mike McCracken said. “It looked like we were in trouble, but we got a huge run to close the first half and that was sparked by our defense.”

Neither team shot the ball well, and tired legs may have been the reason for their combined 2-for-14 performance from the field over the final eight minutes.

Playing catch-up, Oregon cut the deficit to eight on Erin Clapper’s 3-pointer with 1:13 to play in the third quarter. But Amboy’s size and Oregon’s inexperience showed in the fourth, and the Clippers put away the win with six free throws and a Hillary Liebing (8 points, 5 rebounds) put-back in the first 4:42 of the final period. Neither team scored over the final 3:18.

“They hit all their free throws and we didn’t take care of the ball,” Oregon coach Pat Donahue said. “That’s the game right there. We weren’t outplayed, because I thought the girls played hard, but I think we were out-skilled tonight. We’re an athletic, quick team, and we weren’t able to use that to our advantage.”

Star of the game: Courtney Olson, Amboy, 21 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals, 4 blocks

Up next: Oregon Tip-Off Tournament, Amboy vs. Mendota, 5:45 p.m. today; Oregon vs. Mendota, 7:15 p.m. Friday

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