Document text
44 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, January 27, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend February 23, 2003 Crater girls put an end to South’s season By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — Room isn’t available for five Southern Oregon Conference girls basketball teams in the Class 4A state playoffs. Only four SOC squads are allowed in, and neither Crater nor South Medford was willing to be the hopeful participant turned away with one foot in the door. So the Panthers and Comets were forced to duke it out in the proverbial playoff gateway Saturday night inside the Crater gym. And fight they did. Deadlocked with 8-6 records for fourth place at the conclusion of the SOC regular season, Crater and South waged war down to the wire before the Comets created a 10-4 game-ending spurt to earn a 46-43 victory. The reward is a trip to Corvallis, the Valley League’s No. 4 seed, for a 7 p.m. game Tuesday in the first round of the state playoffs. Crater (14-11 overall), making its eighth straight state appearance, must win three games, all on the road, to claim a spot in the state tournament, which begins March 4 at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center. "You hate to say (you can make it there) and jinx yourself," said Comets first-year head coach Scott Dippel. "But definitely the potential is there. I think that we have the athletes. And, more importantly right now, we have the enthusiasm." The chance to keep playing wasn’t won easily. Just eight days after Crater gave them an 82-49 spanking, the Panthers came in prepared and determined. South head coach Andrea Jaime and her staff constructed a game plan focused on keeping the tempo slow and the score tight. The Panther players followed it almost perfectly. "We battled, stuck to the game plan and played hard," said Jaime, whose sixth season in charge ended with South 10-14 overall and out of the state playoffs for the first time since 1999. "You wanna keep it close and hope you get some bounces at the end, but they just didn’t go our way this time." The Panthers closed the first half with a 3-pointer from junior reserve guard Mallory Carlton and a jumper from sophomore guard Kelsey Corbin to cut an eight-point deficit to 20-17 at the break. From there, neither side led by more than four points. A 10-4 sprint to start the second half gave South its first lead of the night. By the end of the third period, the Panthers had a 33-31 edge on the strength of 8-for-15 shooting from the floor in the quarter. Freshman reserve post Marissa Towry drilled a long jumper just before the buzzer to provide South’s advantage entering the fourth. The final quarter unfolded dramatically, with the teams trading the lead three times and forging one tie before the final horn. The Panthers’ high-water mark was right away, when sophomore forward Katie Singler’s inside bucket gave her squad a 35-31 edge. The Comets battled back to make it 36-35 in their favor with 6 minutes, 24 seconds remaining. Dani Montgomery emerged with a steal out of a halfcourt trap of South senior point guard Natasha Wright and sped in for a layup for that lead. The Panthers answered with four straight, the last two coming on senior center Beth Mueller’s free throws with 5:26 to play, for a 39-36 advantage. Crater came right back with three free throws and Montgomery’s spinning bank shot and free throw to make it 42-39 at the 3:15 mark. Mueller’s short banker off an in-bounds pass from Singler cut it to 42-41 with 2:46 remaining. The Comets called timeout with 2:06 left, and Dippel set up a delay offense. After working a minute off the clock, Crater made Dippel’s call brilliant with a backdoor feed from Montgomery to junior forward Katie Robertson for an uncontested layup. It was 44-41 with 58 seconds to go. "We just decided if we were gonna win this game, we had to step up and play some offense and move the ball around," Montgomery said of the possession that was as integral as any in the contest. "We had to get two or three passes into the ballgame if we were gonna get a good shot off. That was our main focus. ... And Katie just snuck right back door." Robertson continued her heroics on South’s ensuing possession, following up senior guard Erin Kinney’s swat of Corbin’s attempted 3 by blocking Singler’s try at a possible game-tying triple. The Comets had the possession arrow on a jump ball, and Kinney — who was 5-for-6 from the line in the fourth — coolly sank both free throws of a one-and-one with 36.8 seconds left to make it 46-41. The Panthers missed consecutive front ends of one-and-ones at the other end, then the Comets were off on two free throws of their own before Mueller’s layup just before the buzzer ended the scoring. "We got desperate," Crater junior point guard Whitney Black said of the Comets’ late rally. "That’s what it was. We play better when we’re desperate. And we got desperate, and we played better." Crater was paced by Robertson’s 12 points and three assists, Black’s nine points and Montgomery’s eight points, five rebounds and five steals. South was led by Mueller’s 12 points, five rebounds, five blocks and three assists. Singler provided 11 points, six rebounds and three assists, senior post Teri Silva grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and Wright passed out five assists and swiped two steals. "Someone asked me if I would have been happier if we would’ve played better," said Dippel, whose team shot 25.5 percent (13-for-51) from the field to South’s 34.8 (16-for-46) and was outrebounded 38-35 but forced 23 Panther turnovers. "I said, ‘Well, if you lose, but you play great, it doesn’t mean a whole lot in the playoffs. You just have to win.’ And I guess we did that." SOUTH MEDFORD (43) — Singler 11, Silva 6, Mueller 12, Corbin 2, Wright 4, Towry 5, Carlton 3. Totals: 16-46 10-18 43. CRATER (46) — Robertson 12, Montgomery 8, Huntley 7, Kinney 5, Black 9, Stoner 2, Wasniewski 0, Kell 3. Totals: 13-51 17-22 46. South Medford ....................... 5 12 16 10 — 43 Crater .................................... 10 10 11 15 — 46 3-point goals — South Medford 1 (Carlton 1), Crater 3 (Robertson 2, Huntley 1). Fouled out — Kinney. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times