Joe's J. Blog

  Walk through the doors of LBCC’s Activities Center on a random day and you can just go shoot some hoops with your friends.  Stop by on a Tuesday or Thursday around noon and you’ll find freshman Ben Clements giving a friendly clinic on all he knows about basketball while the Linn-Benton basketball club gets some runs in. “We all play together, I kind of act as a trainer almost,” he said.  Clements, alongside club advisor Josiah Hunt, create a casual atmosphere that, in the words of Clements, is meant to be “an opportunity to help everyone grow their skillset and get better.” “Sometimes it’s hard with a busy schedule to exercise between classes,” said freshman member Jorge Aquino. "It's very important and just playing ball is such a good way to do it.”   Obviously, doing exercises in the form of activities you enjoy is much more gratifying, and makes it easier to build healthy habits. Many outdoor parks, especially around this time of year, don't have much baske...

  PORTLAND, OREGON – The spell of unfortunate results in road NWAC play continued for the Beaks on Saturday Jan. 24, losing in an overtime thriller to Clark, 84-78. Freshman Kaiden Ford led the way for the team with 21, albeit on a less than stellar eight for 24 shooting, including the most important bucket of the night for LB, a layup with two seconds on the clock to force overtime. “The play was for me to come off a screen and get the drive as I’m running to the hoop. It was a great pass from Gabe [Townsend],” Ford explained. Offensively, the Roadrunners were nothing short of sloppy, particularly to start the game – the team finished shooting 33% from the field as a team, a number that makes it incredibly tough to win a basketball game. Down by as much as 18 in the twilight of the first half, the team did storm back.  “The biggest key was just entering the start of the second half knowing we were still in the game,” Ford said. The team did show improvement defensively, playi...

  TROUTDALE, OREGON – Linn-Benton men's basketball team started out hot, the energy was strong, but Mt. Hood quickly snatched back a lead they would never relinquish, and ultimately handed the Beaks a 105-88 loss on Monday, Jan. 19. LBCC’s Kaiden Ford put up 38 points in the game, making it a bittersweet day for the Freshman point guard, who certainly would have accepted a more modest statline if it had meant a win. “We knew an important factor would really be driving to the rim on these guys. We’re not really a team that lives or dies by the three but when we got down the game changed a bit,” Ford said.  The team only shot 16 threes, which is right around what they usually do, but Ford shot 10 of them, showing he was confident shooting the rock, but also showing a lack of solid distribution that impacted the Roadrunners mightily. Defensively, the team had its bright spots – 10 team steals being a great figure mustered by the team. MHCC, however, was simply relentless in t...

  The gym wasn’t packed, but there was something about the home atmosphere that LB was feeding off in their Saturday afternoon 107-103 victory over Clackamas. Going into the Jan. 17 game and early in the contest, clear-cut challenges appeared. But a balanced team attack in a cardio-intensive, foul-heavy shootout secured a crucial home conference win.  Freshman guard Kaiden Ford led the team in scoring with 26 points — in 30 efficient minutes, where he also added three steals, a block and six rebounds, all while turning the ball over just once. “It’s all my teammates. Our spacing today, it was getting me shots. Wasn’t my best day from the line but having teammates like I have gives me a big boost,” Ford explained. Of the aforementioned challenges the team faced, an illness to top contributor forward Anthony Best reared its ugly head. Then came tough and consistent Clackamas ball pressure. The Cougars wanted to force the Beaks into bad shots. The response instead was steady ball...

ROSEBURG, Oregon – Linn-Benton fell just short of pulling off a comeback against Umpqua, losing 90-81. The game, Jan 14. started out back and forth before a mini-Riverhawks scoring outburst saw them jump out to a 15-point halftime lead. The Beaks seemed like they were clawing back into things in the second half, pulling within five points at the 10-minute mark. However, Umpqua would take back control, and the teams more or less went shot for shot down the stretch, meaning LB just couldn’t dig themselves out of the constant 10- to 15-point deficit. As usual, the Beaks offense worked through freshman forward Anthony Best, who led the team with 24 points, to go along with eight rebounds. Fellow freshman Kaiden Ford also did everything he could to provide scoring the team needed to make something happen, not so much finding good spots from the field, he still found ways to put his fingerprints all over the box score, finishing with 19 points, going 9-11 from the free-throw line.  It ap...

The Beaks brought it in their NWAC conference opener against a familiar foe in Chemeketa, winning 69-62 on Jan. 7 in a game defined by gritty plays, active hands and a good deal of adversity.      Real troubles came on the other end of the court, however, for the team with star freshman forward Anthony Best getting into foul trouble early–the man to step up and provide the offense the Roadrunners needed to secure victory would be sophomore forward Gabe Townsend.       “I think we all went unconscious for a little bit [in the middle of the second half]. All of us were doing everything to contribute anyway we could. I think we started a little slow and that was just when we upped the intensity,” Townsend said. And up the intensity they did, Townsend especially, at multiple points screaming in celebration towards his team’s bench and his opponents on the Storm bench after scoring during that part of the game–one that marked a huge momentum shift.  ...

          Hello! My name is Daniel Joseph O'Leary, most just call me Joe, and this is my first year at LBCC. I have immense interest in journalism, but my major is history and I intend to become a high school teacher. I love the art of reporting and creating things. Sports is certainly my beat as I was the sports editor for my high school's newspaper and worked as a sports feature writer for my hometown's local paper. I hope to help bring some great sports coverage to The Commuter, but I enjoy all forms of print and photojournalism. I enjoy the outdoors a lot, hiking is one of my favorite hobbies, and I play a lot of basketball with friends. Music is also something I'm very passionate about--I don't play any instrument but I always basically have music playing, of any and all genres. Jazz, jazz-funk, 70s (southern) rock, 2000s hip-hop especially 2000s underground hip-hop, reggae, and soul would probably rank as my favorite genres, but I like just about everythin...