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Late run boosts Comet girls past South By GREG STILES CENTRAL POINT -- Every time Ellena Flood drained a 3-pointer or Crater threw the ball away, the panic button looked awfully inviting. The Comets wiped out one eight-point deficit only to face another early in the third quarter. The button was flashing, but the Comets refused to panic. Instead, they parlayed a 14-1 run midway through the second half into their biggest win of the season, overhauling South Medford for a 57-50 Southern Oregon Conference girls basketball victory. "There was a sense of urgency in the third quarter that if we didn't start playing well we were going to be 1-4 (in the SOC) with a game at Ashland on Friday," said Crater coach David Heard, who saw a 33-game home winning streak end earlier this season. "We're not in a position where we can lose a game like this, especially at home." Indeed, if the three-time defending conference champions hope to make a fourth-straight postseason appearance they'll need more finishes like this one. "We didn't show our youth tonight like we have been," said Heard, who started two freshmen and a sophomore. "We were up 13 at Klamath and lost and we were up by one going into the fourth quarter against Roseburg. Hopefully, this will get us jump-started and make us believe we can win the close ones. Our task Friday (at Ashland) will be keeping it close going into the fourth quarter.'' Senior center Emily Wiley dominated inside play for the Comets (8-7, 2-3 SOC), scoring 19 points, yanking down nine rebounds and blocking five shots. "She got quite a few of those off our kids stepping out to help and leaving her open," South Medford coach Andrea Wegner said. ``Obviously, we hoped to limit her touches a little more than we did." Skye Hemphill came off the bench to score seven points in the pivotal third quarter when the Comets outscored the Panthers (8-6, 2-3 SOC) 17-6. She added three more as Crater salted the game away with a 9-4 run during a three-minute stretch in the fourth quarter. "Coach Heard told us that if we didn't start playing good defense, we weren't going to have much of a chance," Hemphill said. South went on a 12-2 burst en route to a 12-8 advantage at the end of the first quarter, despite four turnovers in the final two minutes. A nifty cross-over move by Emily Perttu followed Lynn Wooton's free throw and pushed South to a 15-8 lead early in the second quarter. But Crater got untracked offensively and outscored the Panthers 12-5 during a two-minute stretch, capped by Wiley's 4-footer to make it 20-17 with 3:19 left in the half. South surged back into lead in the final 2:54 of the second quarter with a 13-3 spurt. Flood, who led South with 12 points, sank the third of four 3-pointers to give the Panthers a 24-22 advantage and Kellie Thomas made it 30-23 at intermission by outscrambling Crater for a loose ball and then taking it to the hoop. "We went into the locker room knowing we could play better defense," said Crater freshman point guard Sarah Yager. "Our goal was to hold them to 10 points a quarter and they had 30 at halftime." Wiley started the second half with a bucket off the inbounds play, but Thomas responded with a 3-pointer. Remarkably, the Panthers scored just three more points the remaining 7:42 of the quarter. Crater switched to a 1-3-1 zone, hoping to take away the Panthers' outside shots. It worked. "We wanted to match up with their shooters," Heard said. "We were willing to give up the inside game and be active outside. That's the luxury we have with Emily (Wiley), she's able to clog things up in the middle." Wegner said it was a rare look at a zone for the Panthers. "They're the first team to run that against us," Wegner said. "We run against it in practice every day, but we just didn't run our zone offense very well. We couldn't keep our spacing and allow ourselves open looks because we weren't moving the ball very well." Meanwhile, the Comets planted Wiley on the low post and stationed Hemphill on top. Crater got the ball to Hemphill, who either dumped the ball inside to Wiley or took the opportunity to score herself. "We did a good job of getting the ball to Emily tonight," Heard said. "We haven't been doing that, the ball has been getting tipped where she can't catch it and do something with it. She did a good job of catching and scoring tonight." Crater scored the final seven points of the third quarter and Janell Sapienza's three-point play made it 43-36 to start the fourth. "We weren't doing the job defensively and we weren't getting in the passing lanes," Wegner said. "We plain got outhustled in the second half. I was surprised we didn't make a push (at the start of the fourth quarter) but we didn't take care of the ball and we were trying to force things." The Comets put the game away, hitting 7-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter. SOUTH MEDFORD (50) -- Perttu 10, Flood 12, Wooton 6, Munoz 5, Fossen 4, Mason 0, Thomas 9, Zenz 4. Totals: 17-34 11-16 50. CRATER (57) -- Yager 5, Chase 0, Hemphill 10, Robbins 3, Sapienza 7, Durbin 0, Wiersma 7, Hall 2, Wiley 19, Johnson 0, Arreola 4. Totals: 21-42 15-31 57. South Medford ......12 18 6 14 - 50 Crater ...................8 15 17 17 -- 57 3-point goals -- South Medford 5-9 (Flood 4, Thomas 1). Crater 0-4. Fouled out -- Munoz, Thomas. JV score -- South Medford 50, Crater 44. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford,