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Comets stand tall in defeat Crater gives Westview a valiant fight in 47-44 loss By GREG STILES PORTLAND -- The Crater Comets were admittedly overmatched. Nonetheless, the Comets made life miserable for the Westview Wildcats for three quarters before the Metro League powerhouse carved out a 47-44 victory Saturday night in the girls Class 4A state championship basketball game. The fifth-ranked Wildcats (26-3), whose lofty expectations were placed on twins Kara and Kim Braxton when they moved to Oregon from Michigan in 1998, beat the Comets 57-28 in December. A blowout wasn't likely this time, but the verbal wind circulating through the Chiles Center expected something less than the all-out effort the No. 7 Comets (24-4) put on before the 4,594 in attendance. "I was kind of leery we might get blown out," admitted Crater junior center Jody McLeod. "But we competed our hearts out and played a great game. Hopefully, we'll be back next year." That's a distinct likelihood for the Comets, who started two juniors and three sophomores and had no seniors. It was the second time in three years the Comets came up short in the finals. Oregon City defeated Crater, 48-42, in 1998. Before that, however, no Southern Oregon Conference team had made it to the finals and only Mazama, in 1993, had made it as far as the semifinals. "I think our girls executed the game plan to perfection," Crater coach David Heard said. "We were outmatched, but I thought the girls worked as hard as they could defensively against the Braxtons in the middle. "But Westview came through when they had to and deserved to be champions." Amy Denson, Sarah Pool and Skye Hemphill paced the Comets with 10 points each, while Pool doled out six assists. As a result, Crater stuck with the Wildcats like peanut butter for three quarters. Kara Braxton, a 6-foot-5 junior and her 6-2 sister Kim, towered over the Comets. But they were only intermittently effective because of Crater's defense. Still, Kara had 15 points, dropping in 7 of 10 shots, to go with six rebounds and two assists. Kim had 10 points, hitting all three field goal attempts. What really concerned Heard going into the contest was offense and how to negotiate the Wildcats' skyscraper zone. "We didn't know what to do offensively," Heard said. "We were going to slow things down, spread things out and try to draw Kim away from the basket. We managed to do it pretty well. I think we had four or five layins in the first half. We were able to let our players make plays." "Everybody was expecting a blowout," said Janell Sapienza. "To be that close was just awesome." Westview may have had a better shooting percentage, more rebounds and fewer fouls, but it couldn't shake loose. But a 6-0 run featuring the Braxton twins pushed the Wildcats' advantage to 40-33 with 3:30 to play. At the same time, Westview's defensive pressure kept the Comets from finding the open shots that characterized the first three periods. Crater's fourth-quarter offense consisted of five free throws -- two by Skye Hemphill and three by Sarah Yager -- before Pool canned a 27-foot 3-pointer with 36 seconds and another one from the left wing with three seconds. "Once we got behind three or five points, it became real difficult to run a play," Heard said. "You have to give Westview credit for what they did defensively." Westview coach Mark Neffendorf knew it would be a lot closer this time around. But when the Comets slowed things down, it made for an even closer contest than he hoped for. "They did what they had to," Neffendorf said. "I was hoping they couldn't hold the ball as well as they did and then when they hit their shots it made it that much tougher. They hit some huge shots considering it was a state championship game." The Comets even put a scare in Neffendorf, whose team's three losses were all in the final moments. "I thought we were in fairly good shape until (Yager's) three free throws. That was almost a killer. If they dump in another one, we're talking about another nightmare." The one thing the Comets did was make a strong start. After falling behind 4-0, Crater reeled off the next six points -- all by Denson -- to take its first lead. Skye Hemphill took advantage of one of Pool's lookoff passes to tie it, 10-10 after eight minutes. Crater then stormed out to a 17-11 lead with 7-1 run capped by Brandi Hall's 3-pointer from the left wing with 5:10 left in the second quarter. The bad news for the Comets was that Janell Sapienza picked up two fouls and went to the bench after drawing her third with 5:32 left in the half. Westview then went on a 10-2 run, augmented by a press that led to four turnovers in four minutes, that gave the Wildcats a 21-19 advantage on Sarah Wright's 3-footer with 1:58 left in the half. But Crater squared things when Pool drove the right baseline and dished beneath the hoop to Hemphill for a cripple. The first crack in Crater's wall came when the Comets converted just one of five free throws in the third quarter. Still, they were hanging tough and took their final lead when Brandi Hall stuck the second of two 3-pointers, making it 33-32 with 2:16 left in the third period. "Brandi has been capable of hitting those all along and had at least one in every game," Heard said. "Our kids had the hearts of champions tonight, they didn't give up." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA