Repaired Ty Cleland is now the glue for Clark basketball

Ty Cleland is fearless.

He isn’t afraid to go 150 percent even if he doesn’t feel 100 percent from his surgically repaired knee.

He’s also not afraid to pass up scoring opportunities and not afraid to come off the bench for Clark’s men’s basketball team, even though coach Kevin Johnson knows Cleland, the only returning player from the 2015-16 roster, is deserving of a starting spot.

It all adds up to Johnson describing the 6-foot-1 sophomore backup point guard as the perfect glue guy: steady as they come and a selfless player who contributes in all the little things.

And Cleland embraces it.

“I feel like that represents how I took on this season,” he said. “I do what it takes to win.”

As Cleland’s confidence in his game continues to grow following a year-plus of rehabilitation, so have the Penguins. Winner of four straight, and seven of its past nine games, Clark captured a share of the Northwest Athletic Conference’s South Region title last weekend, and is a top seed entering Thursday’s 16-team NWAC Tournament.

The Penguins (17-9 overall) enter the newly formatted tournament as one of the conference’s hottest playoff-bound teams. They face Whatcom (17-9), the fourth seed out of the North Region, at 6 p.m. Thursday at Everett Community College. The winner advances to the Elite 8 round at 6 p.m. Friday. The Final Four and title games are March 18-19.

Cleland’s numbers this season aren’t flashy, and he’s OK with that. In 18 minutes per game, he averages 6.7 points, four rebounds and 2.2 assists, but is one of the NWAC’s top free-throw shooters at 89.7 percent.

Cleland embraces the much-needed role, said Johnson, named the South Region’s coach of the year earlier this week. More importantly, Cleland encompasses all the intangibles of what makes a team’s glue guy, including attitude, willingness to do his job and not getting too caught up in individualism.

“It’s not always easy to do,” Johnson said.

He’s done it before, though, as an all-league player at West Linn (Ore.) High School, and he knows how to win. West Linn won OSAA 6A state titles in Cleland’s junior and senior years, part of the Lions’ four-year run as state champions of 2013-16.

What’s more impressive is he did it on one healthy leg.

Cleland played almost his entire high school senior season and first year at Santa Barbara City College in 2014-15 on a fully torn left ACL. He can’t recall how it happened. Misdiagnoses from medical specialists, he said, led to him playing through constant discomfort. An MRI after his freshman year in Santa Barbara revealed the injury’s severity.

“I got used to the pain,” he said.

Once back home, Cleland had surgery and transferred to Clark, one of the schools that originally recruited the 6-foot-1 guard. After a 15-month rehab with setbacks, he got cleared just weeks before the 2016-17 season began. Not until a breakout game Jan. 14 against Southwestern Oregon CC, scoring a game-high 18 points on 6 of 10 shooting and four assists in 28 minutes, did teammates see a new Cleland.

“It was like everything changed overnight,” said fellow guard Jordan Berni, a 2013 Skyview High School graduate. “From that point on, he’s looked really good.

“To get back into looking good and feeling crisp has to feel good for him.”

While Clark’s roster lacks NWAC Tournament experience, there’s no shortage of players with big-game experience prior to arriving at Clark, and it starts with Cleland.

“It’s always been about championships for me,” he said. “I won two of them in high school. I always want to win championships.

“That’s what I play for.”

ALL-REGION HONORS: Clark’s Luke Osborn (first-team) and Ozzie George (all-defensive) were named to the all-Northwest Athletic Conference South Region men’s basketball team, as announced this week by the conference office.

Osborn, a freshman forward from Tualatin, Ore., is averaging 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. George’s 7.4 rebounds a game and 16 blocks in 24 games are team-highs.

In addition, Clark interim coach Kevin Johnson was named South Region coach of the year. Johnson took over as interim coach in December when head coach Alex Kirk stepped down. Umpqua’s Grant Ellison was named South Region player of the year.

On the women’s side, Clark was not represented on the all-NWAC South team. Umpqua’s Jordan Stotler, who set the NWAC’s single-season blocks record this season (123; 4.39 per game), swept all honors: South Region player of the year, defensive player of the year, and freshman of the year.

2017 NWAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament

Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds: March 9-12

Final Four, All-Star Games, and Championship: March 18-19

At Everett Community College

Thursday’s Men’s Sweet 16 round

Peninsula vs. Portland, 8 a.m.

North Idaho vs. Tacoma, 10 a.m.

Umpqua vs. Bellevue, noon

South Puget Sound vs. Big Bend, 2 p.m.

Walla Walla vs. Pierce, 4 p.m.

Clark vs. Whatcom, 6 p.m.

Shoreline vs. Mt. Hood, 8 p.m.

Lower Columbia vs. Spokane, 10 p.m.

Online: All games are broadcast on NWAC Sports Network (youtube.com/NWACSportsNetwork)

Tickets (1-day pass): Adults, $17; students/seniors/military, $10; kids ages 7-12, $8