Clackamas coeds take care of business at Canby

Clackamas High School’s girls and boys basketball teams came out on top in Three Rivers League games played at Canby last Friday.

The Cavalier girls breezed by the Cougars 70-50, earning themselves a 4-1 record (15-4 overall) for the first half of the TRL season.

The Cavalier guys prevailed in a 57-54 barnburner, and they finished 2-3 (9-9 overall) for the first half of the league season.

“We had a tough [loss] against Oregon City,” said Clackamas girls coach Todd Lane. “But I’m excited about where we’re at. We need to keep working hard to get better, so we can keep winning games and move up in the [OSAA] power rankings.

Oregon City and Clackamas were ranked first and fifth respectively in the OSAA 6A girls basketball power rankings heading into play this week.

Rallying around the play of junior wing Erica Azorr and senior wing Deeshyra Thomas, Clackamas coeds didn’t waste any time taking charge of last Friday’s game at Canby. The Cavaliers led 23-12 at the end of the first quarter and 42-26 at halftime.

Azorr turned in her best performance of the 2012-13 season, scoring a season-high 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting, hauling down eight rebounds and stealing the sphere five times.

“Erica was really aggressive, which is something we’ve been working on getting her to do,” Lane said. “She was looking to score every time she touched the ball.”

Thomas played a strong game all around, with 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and seven steals. She was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Sophomore wing Caroline Combs (11 points) also reached double figures in scoring. Freshman post Peyton Carroll corralled eight rebounds.

The Cavaliers entertain Lake Oswego (5-13, 0-5) this Friday. They battle Oregon City (17-1, 5-0) on the road next Tuesday. When the two teams met at Clackamas earlier in the season, Clackamas coeds took the Pioneers down to the wire in a 58-57 loss.

Trailing 32-29 at halftime, Clackamas guys played tough at crunch time to earn last week’s win at Canby.

Aaron Ahlstrom headed the effort, scoring a game-high 20 points. Taylor Stinson (10 points) and Andrew Gutwig (10 points) also scored in double figures.