The Clark College women’s basketball team missed out on its last shot at making the NWAC postseason.
Jessica Sexson scored a game-high 28 points to lead Chemeketa past Clark 57-53 in the South region fourth-place tiebreaker game Monday at Salem, Ore.
“Sexson just tore us up,” Clark coach Al Aldridge said. “She kept getting to the rim and was a huge weapon for them. And we knew that (going in).”
Clark ends its season at 17-12 overall. Chemeketa (14-16) advances to play at Lower Columbia on Saturday in a regional playoff game.
Monday’s game was close throughout and came down to the final seconds.
Down 56-53 with 13 seconds to play, Clark missed a 3-point attempt and Chemeketa was able to get the rebound. Clark fouled intentionally, and with 2.5 seconds remaining, Chemeketa made 1 of 2 free throws to seal the win.
“We still had a chance at the end,” Aldridge said. “I thought that last shot was in … I jumped out of my chair. We were that close.”
Kendyl Cone and Shantel Aleki each scored 12 points for Clark, and Molly Franklin had 10. (Click here for complete boxscore.)
“We were competitive, but sloppy at times,” Aldridge said of his team’s final game. “We turned the ball over too much in the first half, then didn’t stick to our defensive gameplan in the second half when we needed to.”
