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It's Dusty who cleans the glass for Eagle Point MT file photo Dusty Damon needs one rebound tonight. By KRIS HENRY EAGLE POINT -- Dusty Damon will go in search of history tonight for the Eagle Point girls basketball team. The Eagles play host to ninth-ranked Ashland at 7 p.m. and, if all goes well for the senior center, she will put another mark in the program's record book moments later. The first errant shot hauled in by Damon will place her alone atop Eagle Point's career rebounding list. Damon and former Eagles standout Becky Gregory are tied for the top spot with 495 rebounds. "It matters a lot to me to break the record," says Damon, who also is second in the Class 4A state rankings at 19 points per game. "I'm hoping I get it (tonight). I have six games left to get one. If I don't get it, that should be a record right there." Records are nothing new to the slender, 5-foot-10 post. She set the school's single-season rebounding standard last year with 212. Damon needs to average 11 boards to break that mark. As amazing as it is to have Gregory, a 5-5 point guard, atop the rebounding list, Damon has an outside chance to turn the tables in an unusual category for a center. "It's kind of interesting when you have a girl her size that plays in the center position that has an outside chance of breaking the school record for steals in a season," says Eagle Point coach Tom McCracken. Damon needs about seven steals per game to close out the year ahead of Gregory's single-season mark of 124. Damon has posted 11 swipes in a game three times in her Eagle Point career. All this for a pivot who is double-teamed when on offense and overshadowed by taller foes on defense. "It's not any big deal anymore for me," Damon says of her height disadvantage. "At first it was a little rough because everybody was bigger than me and I was getting stuffed a lot. You get used to it and you kind of learn ways to get around them. Actually I kind of like it now." That's not to say she doesn't dream about playing the wing and leaving the inside dirty work to someone else. Damon also could do without the constant attention she is afforded by opponents. "It's just pretty much something I've come to live with," she says. "It's a given now. I just know I have to try my hardest, and if I get stopped, the rest of the team has to step up and help me out." Unfortunately for Damon, help hasn't been readily available the past three seasons. Senior point guard Stephanie Lucas has been Damon's chief scoring aide, but the Eagles simply haven't had the numbers or players to counter their more-experienced Southern Oregon Conference foes. "We're doing a couple things well, we're just not winning any games," says McCracken. "We're close. We just haven't been able to get over the top." Eagle Point enters tonight's contest with a 4-12 overall mark and an 0-8 league record. Last year, the Eagles won only one of 14 league games. "It's a little rough not ever winning, but there's not much we can do about it," says Damon. "We just need to go out there and try our best every time and hopefully pull off a couple wins at the end of the year. "My goal is to do my best, and if I know I played hard, then I'm not really going to lose any sleep over it. It is frustrating we don't win, but we get over it and we just have to keep trying." Damon's dedication certainly isn't a concern for McCracken, who says the senior helps set an excellent example for her teammates. "The thing about Dusty is she comes to practice to play hard every night," says the second-year coach. "I just appreciate the effort she gives every day. "Her and Stephanie (Lucas) both provide good leadership for our younger kids. Some kids get tired of me talking about Dusty this and Dusty that, but our kids can learn a lot from her." Along with leading the league in scoring, Damon also tops the Eagles in field goal percentage, making more than half her shots. Surprisingly, Damon doesn't possess the typical scorer's mentality where any shot is a good shot. "She's very unselfish in terms of number of shots," says McCracken. "She doesn't take a lot of bad shots. For a good scorer, she's very unselfish. Sometimes I'd like her to look a little more at the basket than she does." One thing is for sure, her eyes will at least be glued to that area tonight. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA