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South drops Churchill Whitney Grant becomes the Panthers' all-time leading scorer By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune PORTLAND - For the South Medford girls basketball program, it doesn't get much better than this. The Panthers stayed alive at the Class 4A state tournament with a 61-56 overtime win Wednesday morning at the Chiles Center, but that's only the start of the story. Celebrating head coach Andrea Jaime's 31st birthday, South gritted out its first-ever win in the state tournament to advance to Friday's 9 a.m. consolation semifinal against Tigard. And senior point guard Whitney Grant broke the Panthers' all-time scoring record in dramatic fashion, tying the mark with two free throws late in regulation, then besting it with nine of her team's 11 points in overtime. Grant now has 929 career points, eclipsing 2001 graduate Kellie Thomas' mark of 920. "The win, the win, definitely the win," said Grant, who scored 25 points, in answering which was most important among Wednesday's accomplishments. "That was the first time South's ever won a state game before for the girls (against five losses), so that was awesome." And what a win it was. The Panthers, who are now 17-10 overall and 3-1 in postseason play, rallied from a four-point deficit in the last 2 minutes, 22 seconds of regulation. After South freshman forward Katie Singler dropped a floater, her only field goal, with 2:08 to play, junior center Beth Mueller's putback of Grant's driving miss knotted the score at 50-50 with about 50 seconds left. The teams exchanged turnovers in the waning seconds to force overtime. The four-minute extra session began with four free throws from Lancers sophomore post Jessica Stegleman, who finished with a career- and tournament-high 30 points. Grant's floater with 2:28 to go pulled the Panthers within 54-52. And with 1:55 remaining, Grant put South ahead to stay by using a screen to bury her third and final 3-pointer, all of which came in the second half. Mueller had kept the play alive by tipping out Panthers junior post Teri Silva's miss on the front end of a one-and-one. "When it gets to crunch time, she's gonna find a way to make it happen," Jaime said of Grant, who was 0-for-4 from the field for two points in the first half before exploding for 23 points after the break. Mueller deposited a free throw at 1:28, then Grant sank two free throws at 1:10 and two more with 43.9 seconds to play to make it 60-54. Churchill senior guard Angel Morris' putback with 12 seconds left and South junior guard Natasha Wright's free throw with 5.26 seconds on the clock closed the scoring. "When you get into an overtime situation, a lot of it can be emotion," said Lancers head coach Brooke Harter, whose team was 1-for-12 from the field in overtime. "They made the 16-team tournament last year and were two-and-out. And that's what they were facing in overtime. ... That's a gut-check for them, and they pulled through. I think they used some of that energy from last year." Much of the Panthers' positive energy down the stretch came from Grant's sizzling finger tips, and her teammates say that's what they've come to expect. "Whitney's a stud," said Mueller, who recorded a tournament-high seven blocks to go with nine points and nine rebounds despite being saddled with foul trouble much of the way. "She's our leader. We look to her for everything. It's gonna be hard to play next season without her, but she's awesome." South's largest lead over Churchill, which finishes 19-9 and won three subtournament games just to get to the Chiles Center after placing fourth in the Midwestern League, was five points until the dying seconds of overtime. The Panthers, seeded 16th in the tournament and a 68-50 loser to No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Oregon City in first-round action Tuesday, held a 10-7 advantage after one quarter and led most of the first half. The ninth-seeded Lancers, however, roared into the break on a 10-3 run that staked them to a 21-19 edge. Wright scored nine of her 12 points in the first half to spark an otherwise stagnant South attack. The Panthers shot 27.3 percent (6-for-22) in the first half and finished the game at 35.6 percent (21-for-59). Stegleman erupted in the third quarter, tallying Churchill's first eight points as the Lancers built their bulge to as many as seven. Grant's first 3, set up by great hustle to a loose ball from junior post Kirsten Gillingham and a pass from Singler, pulled South to within 38-34 entering the fourth. When Mueller hit a short jumper off an in-bounds pass from Singler with 6:10 left in regulation, the Panthers had a 41-40 advantage. Stegleman answered with four of Churchill's six straight points to put the Lancers up 46-41 with 5:07 to play. Neither squad scored again until Grant splashed a transition 3 set up by a Wright steal with 3:51 to go. Stegleman dropped another driving layup at 3:32, then Grant made both ends of a one-and-one at 2:40 to tie Thomas' all-time South scoring mark and make it 48-46 in the Lancers' favor. Churchill senior guard Annie Roberts drove for a layup at 2:22, then Singler and Mueller came through in the final minutes to get the Panthers to overtime. "They're gonna play to the buzzer, up by 10, down by 10," Jaime said of her team's resiliency. "It doesn't matter. They just get in there and scrap." Spurred by Grant's overtime heroics, South next meets the 12th-seeded Tigers (20-6), champions of the Pac-9 Conference and a 49-46 winner over Wilson in Wednesday's first game. But until Friday morning, the Panthers have plenty of reason to celebrate what they accomplished Wednesday. "It's such an awesome feeling," Wright said. "And we're such a young team, with mostly juniors, one senior and some freshmen. It's so exciting." Added Grant, who finished 7-for-17 from the field, 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and now has 44 points in the tournament: "I think we were a little bit tired, but we dug deep. When it went to overtime, it was good to have that triple-overtime experience (in a 64-59 subtournament victory at Lakeridge that clinched South's state-tourney berth). That was to our advantage. The girls believed they could do it." Gillingham had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Panthers, who went just seven deep and logged only 11 minutes from reserves. Roberts, headed to Southwestern Missouri State next year and a first-team all-Midwestern selection this season, joined Stegleman in double figures for the Lancers with 12 points, six rebounds and five of her team's 14 steals. CHURCHILL (56) - Vobora 1-7 1-3 3, Egbert 0-3 0-0 0, Morris 2-8 1-2 5, Stegleman 10-20 10-11 30, Robertson 3-9 0-1 6, Roberts 5-8 2-3 12, Fiedler 0-4 0-0 0, Stiegler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-59 14-20 56. SOUTH MEDFORD (61) - Wright 4-16 3-6 12, Grant 7-17 8-8 25, Gillingham 5-13 2-2 12, Mueller 4-7 1-2 9, Singler 1-5 1-2 3, Silva 0-1 0-1 0, Brennan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-59 15-21 61. Churchill.......................................... 7 14 17 12 6 - 56 South Medford ...............................10 9 15 16 11 - 61 Halftime - Churchill 21, South Medford 19. End of regulation - Churchill 50, South Medford 50. 3-point goals - Churchill 0-8 (Vobora 0-1, Egbert 0-2, Morris 0-1, Stegleman 0-1, Robertson 0-2, Roberts 0-1), South Medford 4-6 (Wright 1-1, Grant 3-5). Rebounds - Churchill 44 (Stegleman 12), South Medford 39 (Singler 10). Assists - Churchill 6 (Vobora 2, Robertson 2), South Medford 9 (Singler 4). Fouled out - Egbert, Roberts, Gillingham. Team fouls - Churchill 22, South Medford 17. 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