Veteran players on Clark’s men’s basketball team knows what January means in the Northwest Athletic Conference.
“Everything matters now,” sophomore Tyler Fernstrom said.
That’s because January is the start of division play across the conference. The Penguins, already with one NWAC South Division game played at Linn-Benton Thursday, have their home division opener against Lane on Saturday. Tip-off is 4 p.m. at the O’Connell Sports Center.
But they didn’t need the calendar to flip to January see a switch in intensity. It started their first practice back after dropping two of three games at the Bellingham Crossover in mid-December.
“We definitely kicked it up a notch,” said Sam Scarpelli, a sophomore guard out of Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Ore.
Last year’s 9-18 team that had seven losses by eight or fewer points ended a streak of three consecutive NWAC South titles. Team chemistry is one of the reasons why the Penguins say they won their first six to start the season and seven of their first eight. But what could separate them down the stretch is the balance in the stat sheet. Clark’s had four players have game-highs in points, rebounds and assists, and five in steals.
One of those players to have game-highs in each category is sophomore Parker Gaddis. Two years removed from playing at Clackamas his freshman year, he’s back in the NWAC and leads Clark in scoring at 17 points per game. He took a medical redshirt at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., last season because of surgeries on both hips. Recovery time started as four to six weeks, then four to six months on each hip.
“My body didn’t cooperate the way I wanted it to,” Gaddis said.
Now at age 22 and back in the Pacific Northwest, Gaddis’ 17 points per game on 54 percent shooting from the field is one of five Clark players to average double figures in scoring.
“We’re at our best when we don’t have one or two people trying to do everything,” Fernstrom said. “When everyone plays to their strengths and playing off everyone, that’s when we’re really tough.”
