Eagles have full arsenal back for state playoff run

By Rob McCallum
Published: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:44 PM CST
Mt. Shasta News

Freshman forward Jennifer Whipple drives inside for a layup on Saturday evening against Feather River College.

What a difference 5 feet and 5 inches can make. Up until point guard Amanda Harris broke her right wrist, the College of the Siskiyous women's basketball team was beating teams by 40, 50 and even 60 points.

The Eagles didn't exactly fall apart in the nine games Harris missed, placing second the Golden Valley Conference and securing a state playoff berth. But now that Harris is back in the COS lineup, coach Tom Powers thinks his team is dangerous in the state playoffs.

Siskiyous (26-3, 8-2 GVC) looked more like the team that was blowing teams out by 60 points last week, knocking off GVC champ Lassen on the road 101-80 and Feather River at home 92-53.

“We're going on all cylinders again,” said Powers, who will be taking his 21st COS team to the playoffs on Saturday night against Las Positas. “I think if we would have had Amanda, we would have been scoring over 100 every game. We forgot how nice it was to have her.”

A narrow loss to Lassen - coupled with another at Butte - cost them the conference title, but COS got revenge on Feb. 14 in Susanville. Ahead only 75-69 with under 8 minutes to play, the Eagles went on a 24-3 run and coasted to the win.

The Eagles had an outside shot at a second straight co-GVC title, but Lassen beat Redwoods while COS beat FRC to finish one game ahead.

Sophomore forward Katie Pollak exploded for a career-high 39 points and tied a school record with 22 rebounds. Pollak went 8-for-11 from 3-point range and also made six buckets in the paint.

“Katie was on fire over there,” Powers said. “All the girls played well, but Katie had just a career night for us.”

Freshman center Karlee Myers turned in her fifth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Chelsea Keuhner scored 14 despite an illness. Jennifer Whipple, Kristi Arness and Harris had 8 apiece.

Siskiyous was down by as many as 13 to the Cougars in the first half before rallying.

The Eagles never trailed at home against FRC on Saturday, as Harris got a steal and layup seconds into the game.

Pollak and Myers continued their torrid pace from three nights earlier, fueling COS to a 28-4 lead, including 16 unanswered points. Pollak scored her team's last seven points of the first half, including a 3 just before halftime to go up 45-17.

Harris finished the week with a whopping 20 steals with 11 against Lassen and 9 more on Saturday night. Her backcourt mate, Keuhner, owns the school's single season steal mark at 154 and is setting the career mark game by game.

Pollak finished with 34 points and six 3-pointers and Myers had 20 points. Arness added 10.

“We were just looking for good games,” Powers said. “We knew we were going to be at least No. 2 in the league and going to the playoffs. Both were very good showings for us.”

Departing sophomores who played their final regular season game at COS were Stacy Sheriff, Jessica West, Natasha Robinson, Keuhner and Pollak. That group also carried the Eagles to a state playoff berth last season as freshmen.

The Eagles host Las Positas on Saturday at 7 p.m. as Northern California's No. 5 seed. The Livermore school went 20-9 in their first year of existence, and brings an all freshman roster to Weed.

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