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photos by Andy Atkinson Center Jackie Woods (facing camera) and her Ashland teammates had plenty to celebrate following their 37-30 SOC playoff victory over North Medford on Saturday. Grizzly girls upend North for SOC title By GREG STILES It took a little longer than they wanted, but the Ashland Grizzlies finally nailed down the long awaited trip to the Class 4A state tournament Saturday night. Ashland rallied from an early 7-0 deficit then took charge with a 13-0 run in the second half as the Grizzlies defeated North Medford, 37-30, in a Southern Oregon Conference girls basketball playoff before 2,000 at the North gym. The teams tied for the SOC championship with 12-2 records, but Ashland had struggled in the stretch run while North had won seven straight. Ashland's Kirsten McNaught goes in for a layup against North Medford's Katie Ledford. "This was our third chance to go straight to the state tournament and I think we've grown a lot from the two games we lost," said Ashland junior Chelsea Morgan. "We learned not to choke and how to take control of a game." Ashland next takes the floor March 3 at 3 p.m. at the Chiles Center in Portland against an opponent that will emerge from next week's state playoffs. North, meanwhile, will play another home game this coming Saturday to earn a March 2 contest in Portland. The Grizzlies made the playoffs in 1985, 1997 and 1998, but this is their first state tournament trip. "I just wouldn't have wanted to get into a must-win situation," Ashland coach Heather Roberts said. "This was a huge win for us. North had the momentum so I thought it was a big thing to get our confidence back." Roberts shook up her game plan and starting lineup a bit, hoping to jar her team back on track. "We put in a new game plan Thursday," Roberts said. "I told the girls to trust it and it worked. I told them, even if we get down, to stick with it." Right on cue, the Tornado scored from outside, inside and at the foul line in the first 4:35. Ashland committed seven turnovers in that stretch and didn't so much as attempt a field goal until Jenny Pippa put up a shot with 2:53 left in the first quarter. But Roberts' decision to go with her five best ballhandlers and bring center Jackie Woods off the bench began taking hold. The Grizzlies pulled to within 7-6 at the first break and then tied it 15-15 on Denise Noyes' putback with 38 seconds left in the half. "Our game plan was to keep running through, pass the ball and make (North) tired on defense," said Ashland sophomore Hannah Seltzer. "We were using our offense to make them impatient on offense so that they would settle for outside shots." North finished the night 11-of-39 from the field and 3-of-11 from behind the 3-point arc. "We didn't do a good job of getting the basketball inside," North coach Mike Kay said. "A couple of weeks ago we shot 17 free throws and we shot 10 tonight because we didn't attack the basket." Nonetheless, Lu Crenshaw, Ashlee Giles and Katie Ledford scored from the field to start the third quarter, before Woods stemmed the tide with a 15-footer. Crenshaw returned the lead to six on a breakaway pass from Jenny Close with 2:45. It was more than eight minutes before North scored again, and by then the Grizzlies had built a 30-23 lead. "There were no extra lucky charms tonight," Seltzer said. "We just came out knowing we had to play well and we did. When we lost to Crater and North our mindset wasn't what it should be confidence-wise. We knew we could beat 'em tonight, we just had to play with more intensity." Seltzer was absent from the scoring column until she ignited the pivotal 13-0 surge with 1:38 to play in the third quarter. She accounted for seven points in the streak. Woods tied it 23-23 to start the fourth quarter as she took a feed from Seltzer, who gave the Grizzlies their first lead at 26-23 on a three-point play. Seltzer capped the run with an inside hoop with 2:38 to play, making it 30-23. "We held Seltzer to two points through the third quarter and then she went off on us for nine points," Kay said. "We did a nice job of controlling everybody else though." North battled back with Giles hitting from the left wing and Crenshaw coaxing in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut Ashland's lead to 30-28 with 1:39 to play. But time became North's enemy and the Grizzlies marched to the charity stripe 10 times in the final 1:15, connecting on seven. Seltzer sealed it with four straight free throws to make it 35-28 with nine seconds to play. Woods was the deciding factor, scoring 23 points, when Ashland beat the Tornado 60-51 on Jan. 5. But the 6-foot sophomore post was neutralized in the second game. This time she came off the bench to score 11 points and block a couple of shots. "They've been saying they were going to shut me down, but I'm not the whole team," Woods said. "If they want to shut me down, I'll play that much harder and pick it up a notch." Defense ruled the evening as the teams combined for 36 turnovers. But unlike the previous meeting Feb. 5 when North ran to a 50-38 win, the Grizzlies proved tougher on the backboards. Pippa, the shortest player on the floor, had a game-high six rebounds. Morgan, Seltzer and Woods had five apiece as Ashland outrebounded the Tornado, 32-24. "We had nothing to lose tonight," Pippa said. "We haven't beaten North on its home court and we just gave it everything we had." Now North will spend the week preparing for its second chance to make it two straight tournament appearances. "We're going to win as a team and lose as a team," Giles said. "It's hard to lose, but we're not sore losers. We still have chance to go to the tournament." ASHLAND (37) -- Morgan 3, Staples 4, Bullen 0, Seltzer 11, Pippa 3, Woods 11, McNaught 3, Noyes 2. Totals: 12-35 13-16 37. NORTH MEDFORD (30) -- Close 2, Crenshaw 15, Ross 0, MacLauchlan 0, Bennett 0, Giles 7, Manwaring 2, Ledford 4, Nelson 0. Totals: 11-39 5-10 30. Ashland .................6 9 6 16 -- 37 North Medford .........7 8 8 7 -- 30 3-point goals -- Ashland 0-7, North Medford 3-11 (Crenshaw 2, Giles 1). Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.