PSU says goodbye to basketball stars

The past four years have been eventful for Portland State’s basketball programs, but as the college careers of Claire Faucher and Dominic Waters come to an end it’s time for fans and teammates to say goodbye to two student-athletes that have dominated the court.

Faucher, a starting point guard for the women’s team and native of Yakima, Wash., finished her senior season with a monumental postseason appearance after breaking school and conference records. She gave a career performance to help her team win the Big Sky Tournament title, and led her team to the program’s first-ever ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

Waters, a Portland native and Grant High School graduate, has constantly been in the spotlight of men’s basketball in his two seasons at PSU since transferring from Hawaii. Whether it was leading his team to an upset over cross-town rival and No. 25 in the nation Portland, which he said was his favorite game of the season, or delivering an outstanding performance in the Big Sky Tournament semifinal, the starting guard and co-captain was a leader.

Faucher came to PSU with a big goal in mind: to change the culture of women’s basketball at Portland State. The senior guard defiantly left behind a legacy that indeed did change women’s basketball for her school, but she could not be more gracious of her achievements.

“It wasn’t just me that did it,” she said. “When people talk so much about me it sometimes discredits the team as a whole, and there [are] several different pieces that helped us get to where we finished.”

 Waters is equally modest, and remarked that his drive and love for the game keep him focused.

“I always want to put my team first, and put them in position to win games,” he said.

Both players are leaders on the court. Waters started every game of the season and led the Viks in scoring with averages of 18.6 points and 4.8 assists per game. He also led with his .424 three-point shooting average and .902 free-throw average.

Waters was named Second Team All-Big Sky both seasons at PSU, and named Big Sky Player of the Week on two separate occasions this year. Faucher ended her career at Portland State as a three-time All-Big Sky point guard.

Faucher became the school and Big Sky’s all-time leader in assists and leaves PSU with her name in the top-10 in fourteen categories. She is first in assists, second in steals (282) and three-pointers made (185), third in starts (108), and featured in 10 other categories.

“Claire really is a leader, she steps up when she needs to, and we definitely saw that during the last game [of the Big Sky Tournament] against Montana,” head coach Sherri Murrell said in an interview following the NCAA Tournament matchup against Texas A&M.

In that title-winning game against Montana, Faucher hit 26 points, boasted six assists and chalked an impressive five steals.

“That’s the kind of thing every little kids wants,” Faucher said. “To go to the big dance, to play against one of the top teams in the country…[it was] a wonderful way to go out. I can’t imagine a better way.”

The men’s side faced several barriers during their season. Plagued with injuries to top players Julius Jones, Paul Guede, Phil Nelson and even Waters, who started out in the first University of Washington tournament with just two practices. Despite this, and the fact that a new coach led a predominantly young team, the men made it to the Big Sky Tournament.

“I think the biggest success was making it to the Big Sky after having a tough start,” Waters said.

The men faced off against the Montana State Grizzlies in the opening round of the Big Sky, and  took the game with a last-minute three pointer by freshman Melvin Jones. In the semifinals, the Viks faced Weber State where they saw a bitter 69–60 loss. During that loss, Waters took part in an impressive game and finished with 19 points and a career-high five steals.

The two college stars have very different future paths. Faucher said she feels it is time to move on to something new, and she is waiting to hear about an MBA opportunity at George Fox, where she also hopes to help coach.

Waters said he hired an agent about a week ago, and hopes to play basketball professionally.

“My goal is to try and get into a camp or summer league—I want to play at the highest level, if not in the U.S. then I would want to go to Europe,” he said.

The two seniors that had their faces on billboards and banners around Portland and on campus now move on to a new chapter in their lives. Leaving behind teammates that they both can’t talk enough about, and coaches that can’t talk enough about them, the two leave their respective teams in good hands, and both offered words of advice to future players.

“Enjoy it, even the hard stuff,” Faucher said. “Just enjoy every piece of the memories you make.”

Waters, meanwhile, spoke of unity.

“Stay together, play as one, don’t worry about everything else that could affect your core performance and go out and play—play for each other,” he said.