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Black Tornado triumphs Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli North Medford's Brittany Hodges, left, drives to the basket against North Eugene in Friday night's game at North Medford High. North Medford registers first victory of the season with win over North Eugene By TIM PYLE The first few weeks of the basketball season have been painful for J.T. Thomas and the North Medford girls. A sterling first quarter against North Eugene provided precisely that. Using tenacious defense to generate transition points and taking advantage of an energetic start from junior post Kerstin Mellbye, the Tornado jumped all over the Highlanders to whirl to a 17-2 lead through one. North Eugene (1-3) pulled to within 25-17 in the second and made another mini rally to enter the fourth behind 41-32, but North Medford returned to its first-quarter ways to secure a 59-40 triumph. "It's hard to find things that went wrong when you win for the first time," said Thomas, in his fourth year in charge of the Tornado. "A lot of positive things happened tonight." Mellbye, the tallest player on the court Friday at 6 foot 2, corralled six rebounds, snared three steals and scored four points in the first to get North Medford going. She finished with 13 rebounds - five offensive - to accompany six points and five steals. Thomas pinpoints Mellbye's growth as one of the keys to the Tornado's hopes this winter. "We've gotta get inspired play from Mellbye every night," said Thomas, whose 2000-2001 team went 3-11 in the Southern Oregon Conference and finished seventh. "She started off real well tonight, but then she got complacent." Brittany Hodges and Anna Lilly - two-thirds of North Medford's trio of sophomore starters on the perimeter - picked up the offensive load. Hodges, a wing, struck for 11 of her 15 points in the second half, while point guard Lilly scored seven of her 12 in the waning minutes of the second quarter. "Speed and defense are our best attributes," said Hodges, who had two steals and five rebounds and did the bulk of her scoring damage on fastbreaks. "We took our lumps early in the season, but our confidence will build as we go on." The Highlanders hung around after their icy start largely through the efforts of senior post Mollie Williams, who scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Sophomore point guard Kassie Fortier scored all 10 of her points in the second half. "We didn't get ourselves mentally prepared to play," said 18th-year North Eugene head coach Roy Bass, who has two sophomores and two freshmen in his starting lineup. "And a lot of that is lack of experience." The Tornado opened the fourth with a 10-0 spurt to put the game away. Similar to the first quarter, it was defense and transition buckets doing the magic. "We're trying to be smart about when to use pressure," said Thomas, whose squad forced 11 turnovers in the first quarter, seven in the fourth and 27 overall. "And we really focused on playing tough half-court defense tonight." Although the road has been bumpy for North Medford so far, the Tornado impressed Bass on Friday. "They've got good athletes, and they play hard," Bass said. "That's what it takes." NORTH EUGENE (40) - Barton 4, Cummins 4, Williams 14, Ficek 4, Fortier 10, Lagendoerfer 2, Johnson 2, Likens 0, Hernandez 0, Fitch 0, Black 0, Frye-Keele 0. Totals 9-40 22-37 40. NORTH MEDFORD (59) - Miller 6, Hodges 15, Mellbye 6, Siebenlist 2, Lilly 12, Rettmann 7, Gentry 4, Bostwick 7, Reeves 0, Seeley 0, Westerman 0. Totals 21-70 13-23 59. North Eugene ................................... 2 17 13 8 - 40 North Medford ............................... 17 14 10 18 - 59 3-point goals - NE 0; NM 4 (Lilly 1, Miller 1, Rettmann 1, Bostwick 1). Fouled out - NE: Ficek; NM: Siebenlist. Technicals - NE: coach Bass. JV score - North Medford 51, North Eugene 33. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.