Multnomah University - Ambassador Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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Q41 Msn -l-I X CD The blood, sweat and tears of this basket- ball season cannot be read between the lines of the final statistics. A 14-13 won-loss record would at a glance draw a casual sigh and shrug of the shoulders. But the story behind Multnomah's record this year simp- ly won't fall into a dull category. Six points or less determined the outcome of nine of the thirteen losses this year. Of those nine, one loss was by six points, one by five, one by four, and then five games were lost by two points or less. Overtimes, double - overtimes, and last second, blind, over-the-shoulder-throw- aways that scored, seemed to kill any string of wins the team attempted to put together. But even that is not all. Costly, untimely injuries plagued the team and kept the starting lineup in a constant turmoil caus- ing added headaches and losses. The season began with an exceptionally bright outlook and ended with a triumphant tour of France. But the months in between, well . . . It was a difficult season in a lot of ways,', commented coach Jim Skagen, we had people hurt at most of the wrong times so we couldn't form a smoothly - working starting five that had gotten used to playing together, which is what you normally want to do. But we learned a lot and the Lord was good to us. We cou1dn't always figure out why things happened the way they did all the time, but it all worked out fine in the end. Tryouts for this year's team began the first of October when 28 interested players responded to the tryout call of Skagen and assistant coach Lani Harrington. Senior Dick Steward bypassed the tryouts as previously appointed captain of this year's team. Tryouts for a varsity spot came to a head the second week as veteran players joined the workouts. By Friday of the second week the never-envied job of making the final cut was over. As the tryout dust settled and the solid 13- man roster got down to work, the Am- bassadors recieved the first of many blows. Veteran senior Doug Harvey lost his final year of eligibility. A league ruling concer- ning a year of Junior college ball he had played some years ago in Washington declared that he had officially played out his college years. This left the team with but two seniors, Steward and Gary Drechselg four ex- perienced juniors in John Stump, Tom Reber, Driggs Jessup and Tim Pearson, and a whole handful of freshman. Rookies Jon West, Matt Hensley, Mike Petersen, Ervin Wood, Dirk Johnson and Larry Carrell rounded out the club. Young talent soon began to make its presence felt as West, Wood and Hensley all broke into the starting lineup along with Steward and Stump. The team plowed through the early season with a 2-2 record at Christmas and Alaska-tour time. Steward had already missed two of the team's four games due to chest colds which in the long run plagued him throughout the season, and held him out of action for a total of a month. This nagging setback became even more pronounced with the injury of leading scorer Woody Wood. Wood, a painting contractor when not playing basketball, accompanied Mike Petersen to his home in California for the first week of Christmas break. While pain- ting the Peterson home, he fell 15 feet from a ladder to a concrete slab and broke his left arm. The team returned from Alaska with a 4-4 season record to face the crucial league season and were still without a consistent starting five. Larry Carrell and Jon West led the team through most of the league play. Carrell had broken into the starting lineup in December and became a key man for the Am- bassadors at the point guard position. West played with consistently high' scoring totals and received rebounding assistance from a vastly - improved Tim Pearson who came on to break the school rebounding record grabbing 18 in one game. Multnomah finished third in league play with a 5-5 record. They followed Northwest Christian of Eugene, which took the title, and Concordia College which finished se- cond. The team also placed third in the National Little College Athletic Association's Northwest Regional tournament behind the same two teams. Ervin Wood led the scoring for the team this year with a 15.2 points per game output but West followed closely with a 15.0 average. Dick Steward and Larry Carrell chipped in 10.8 and 10.1 points a game respectively. by Keith Vandegrift

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