Clarendon College Women Class 6A at a Glance

ways to go in all areas to compete in this league.”

WJCAC has plenty of good teams

Toward that direction, Clarendon has scheduled teams like Hill College and Weatherford College in November to prepare for WJCAC play starting in January. The win-loss record won’t be as important to the Bulldogs as improvement, which Coach Hunter Jenkins they hope to display when they host Western Texas College in the WJCAC opener Jan. 7.

Also, they’ll play their first four games of the season on the road. Dealing with the conference itself will be another matter altogether.

“We’ve got nine teams, and I don’t really see anybody who’s below the pack,” Jenkins said. “I think everybody’s got a really, really good team this year. Obviously, Odessa (College) went 16-0 last year, so they’re kind of the ones to shoot for at the top. There are a lot of new faces in the league coaching-wise. This league is a battle every single night. There’s not an off night or a dip.”

“You could be 5,6,7 in this league and be in some other conferences and have a shot to win it. That’s kind of year-in and year-out in this league.”

The Bulldogs look as if they could be comparable with several of the WJCAC teams talentwise. If they can develop some chemistry before the games really start counting in the new year, they could make an impact.

That, and a little good fortune, could move Clarendon up the conference chain this season.

“I think if we defend at a high level and rebound the basketball like we need to and offensively take good shots and don’t turn it over, we’ll put ourselves in a position every game to at least be in it,” Jenkins said. “We really tried to revamp the roster with some more depth to really be able to allow us to play through injuries this year. Hopefully we don’t have to do that. That was really an issue for us last year.”

that team that have those same expectations. We want to believe that we can do that every year.”

No one can blame James for having such confidence after a year when his team went 24-9. Six players are coming back from that team, so success is more to be expected this season.

The possibility of surpassing last season based on that is what has raised the stakes for Clarendon.

“We exceeded maybe not everybody’s (expectations), but a lot,” James said. “We were picked dead last in the conference. Not one single coach picked us anything but last. We went into the season knowing we were better than that.

“It didn’t bother us. It upset a couple of the girls and put a chip on their shoulder, and they really got after it from day one.”

Won’t be sneaking up on anybody

The Lady Bulldogs will have to do the same thing this season

Date Opponent

Time

Nov. 1 @ Wayland Baptist University 5 p.m. Nov. 4 Northlake College at Hobbs, New Mexico 3 p.m. Nov. 6 Murray State College @ Oklahoma 6 p.m. Nov. 7 Redlands Community College @ Oklahoma 6 p.m. Nov. 8 Western Oklahoma State College 7 p.m. Nov. 14 Langston University 5 p.m. Nov. 18 Hill College @ Snyder 4 p.m. Nov. 19 Victoria College @ Snyder 1 p.m. Nov. 22 Nationwide Academy 3 p.m. Nov. 28 Weatherford College 2 p.m. Dec. 3 RPA College 5 p.m. Dec. 6 @ Western Oklahoma State College 7 p.m. Dec. 10 RPA College 5 p.m. Jan. 3 Strength in Motion Prep 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7 Western Texas College 4 p.m. Jan. 9 @ Odessa College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12 New Mexico Military Institute 6 p.m. Jan. 16 @ Midland College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19 Frank Phillips College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 @ South Plains College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 @ Howard College 4 p.m. Jan. 30 New Mexico Junior College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 Odessa College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 @ New Mexico Military Institute 6 p.m. Feb. 13 Midland College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 @ Frank Phillips College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 South Plains College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 Howard College 7:30 p.m. Mar. 2 @ New Mexico Junior College 7:30 p.m.

Clarendon College Women Lady Bulldogs like the number ‘3’

By LEE PASSMORE

The bar has been raised for the Clarendon College women this season, and as far as coach Mark James is concerned, that can mean one of two things.

Following the most successful season in school history last year with a trip to the Region V final, the Lady Bulldogs have reason to believe they’re legitimized as a contender in the always rugged Western Junior College Athletic Conference.

It also means that after such a successful season, there will be a bigger target on their backs this season. The Lady Bulldogs no longer can hide in the crowd and surprise anybody.

James thinks both things come with the territory.

“It’s kind of hand-in-hand,” he said. “We’ve got a bit of what I consider unfinished business. We made it to the region championship and let a game get away. We lost to a really good team, but we had a chance to win. We have enough returners who were on

(Continued from previous page) to have any shot of being that good this season. In order to return to those heights, James has scheduled a tougher nonconference slate as preparation for a run into March.

Clarendon definitely will enter 2022-23 as a known quantity.

“Everybody knows what you’ve done,” James said. “We’re not going to sneak up on anybody, that’s for sure. I don’t know that we snuck up on anybody in the conference. We certainly got everybody’s attention.

“Our talent’s still there. We may be even more talented than we were last year. The big key for our team is we need to embrace the journey, not just rush to try to get back to the championship game. They need to understand let’s enjoy practice and the process of getting better every day.”

There is one proven aspect to the Lady Bulldogs that everybody is aware of, and that’s their backcourt. They have a reputation as one of the best 3-point-shooting teams in the nation after leading the country last year, and James is convinced they’ll live up to that again.

“We shoot it really well,” he said. “I don’t know if we have as many shooters as we’ve had, but we have two of the top shooters in the country back. We’ve got three of the top five in the conference back. When we’re on, we’re on.”

Those two shooters would be Aileen Marquez and Autumn Wadsworth, for starters. Marquez, who led Clarendon with 16.7 points a game, was an All-WJCAC selection and second in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, hitting 44.2 percent from beyond the arc.

Wadsworth averaged 8.5 points but wasn’t far behind Marquez percentage-wise, hitting 43.8 of her long-range shots. Another guard, Mah Minthe, averaged 11.9 points and hit 42.1 percent of her 3s while being named WJCAC Newcomer of the Year and to the NJCAA All-Region V team.

Combine that with a returning pure point guard, sophomore JoJo Munroe, and the Lady Bulldogs figure to put up a lot of points on their opponents. James admits that last year’s standard his team established beyond the arc will be hard to beat.

“It would be a lot to duplicate that,” James said. “I still think that’s going to be a strength. They’ll try to take that away. We can throw out a lineup with four or five kids who can shoot it. They can’t just key on Aileen Marquez and Autumn Wadsworth.”

Team not as deep as last year

The returning offensive talent is enough to make the Lady Bulldogs contenders again. Beyond that, though, there are questions as to how much talent and experience Clarendon will have.

“We’re not overly deep as far as experience,” James said. “We’ve got a lot of starters back, but we also lost a lot. We’re comfortable through about seven or eight. Our depth right now is not where it was last year.

“If we got somebody in foul trouble last year, we’d just throw somebody in and we were good to go. We have a few months of games to get some of those freshmen and newcomers to step up.”

Hopefully, those roles will be defined by the time the Lady Bulldogs open their WJCAC schedule at home against Western Texas College on Jan. 7. It’s a testimony to the overall depth in the conference that Clarendon finished 7-7 last year yet still was standing one win away from the national tournament before losing to WJCAC rival South Plains College 64-54 in the Region V final.

James doesn’t think there was a huge difference between the top and the bottom of the conference. 110 College

Coach Mark James

Mah Minthe Aileen Marquez

Joanna _JoJo_ Munroe Autumn Wadsworth

Lashonda Stiger

Clarendon College Lady Bulldogs Roster

Name, Ht., Pos., Class, Hometown JoJo Munroe, 5-5, G, Soph., Freeport, Bahamas Deairah Mays, 5-8, G, Soph., Fort Smith, Arkansas Alexis Cruz, 5-2, G, Fr., Amarillo, Texas Malloree Schlessman, 5-10, F, Fr., Beaver, Oklahoma Lauryn Williams, 5-2, G, Fr., Arlington, Texas Bruna Schuster, 5-8, G, Fr., Porto Uniao, Brazil Marisa Alvarado, 5-6, G, Soph., Anton, Texas Mah Minthe, 5-10, F, Soph., Paris, France Taylor Lewis, 6-1, P, Soph., Upper Marlboro, Maryland Aileen Marquez, 5-7, G, Soph., Arden, North Carolina Autumn Wadsworth, 5-7, G, Soph., Reno, Nevada Narissa Blackwell, 5-9, G, Soph., Houston, Texas Lashonda Stiger, 5-6, G, Fr., Amarillo (Palo Duro), Texas Djessira Diawara, 6-3, P, Soph., Bamako, Mali Camila Contreras, 6-4, P, Soph., Socorro, Texas Maleah Garrett, 5-7, G, Fr., Corpus Christi, Texas Valmoana Niumeiatolu, 5-6, G, Fr., Sandy, Utah

Coach: Mark James Asst. Coach: Erika Warren 2021-2022 record: 24-9, 7-7

“There was only one game last year where we didn’t show up and got beat pretty good, but everything else was winnable,” James said. “Our wins were all losable. There were a lot of close games. It’s that way all across the league. One through eight there’s a little bit of a separation, but it’s not as big as in most conferences.”

James thinks New Mexico JC looks like a favorite in the WJCAC. Odessa College is expected to bounce back, and Midland and South Plains are perennial contenders.

“We fully expect to compete with everybody in our league,” he said. “I think if we can defend a little better than we did last year, I think we can take that next step. We score the ball well enough; if we can be just very good, we can take that next step and bring home a bigger trophy than we did last season.”