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Crater girls leave Grizz fit to be tied By GREG STILES CENTRAL POINT -- It's every Class 4A girls basketball team's desire to be in Portland come March. It's been the Ashland Grizzlies' stated goal from Day One. But even though Ashland clinched a tie for the Southern Oregon Conference championship last Friday, the road has gotten rougher and longer. The Crater Comets, a mere speed bump when the teams last met Jan. 22, threw up a "Bridge Out" sign for the Grizzlies Tuesday night. Senior center Emily Wiley had a five-star performance as the Comets stunned the Grizzlies, 61-51, before a sellout crowd at Crater High. Wiley scored a career-high 24 points, snagged eight rebounds, blocked six shots, had five steals and -- oh yes, sang the Star Spangled Banner. More importantly, the Grizzlies (16-5, 12-2 SOC) couldn't cope with her presence in the middle of Crater's attacking zone defense. "Emily dominated both ends of the court," Crater coach David Heard said. "A lot of people don't think that she's that great. But she showed tonight that she's worthy of all-conference honors." Crater's victory forces Ashland to travel back to North Medford, where it suffered its only previous SOC loss, for a playoff to determine the SOC's No. 1 berth and a trip to the March 2-6 state tournament at the Chiles Center in Portland. The playoff date will be announced later. The Comets (14-9, 9-5 SOC), meanwhile, finished third and earned a home appearance Feb. 25 in the second round of the state playoffs. "Right now we're about as good as I thought we could be at this point of the season," Heard said. "I think a lot of teams that were 0-3 in league would have folded. But we kept telling them and they kept believing that we were going to be good at the end of the season." Wiley had plenty of co-stars as the Comets avenged a 70-58 loss at Ashland. Jodi McLeod came off the bench to score 10 points and pull down 10 rebounds, while Janell Sapienza scored 12 points and connected on 4-of-6 free throws in the final 1:21. While Crater's posts had a couple dozen rebounds, Ashland's posts combined for only 11. Ashland point guard Jenny Pippa and post Jackie Woods had 12 points apiece. But Pippa had an uncharacteristic six turnovers and sank just one of six free throws. Woods was 2-for-16 from the field. Those numbers mirrored the Grizzlies' overall 13-of-48 field goal shooting and 19-of-31 performance at the foul line. "I was disappointed," Ashland coach Heather Roberts said. "I thought they played a lot smarter and I thought we backed down and didn't respond to the big game. It reminded me a lot of the North Medford loss." Ashland took a 16-8 lead on Pippa's 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in the first perio.d Sapienza hit a pair of free throws to close the quarter to start an 11-point run that gave the Comets the lead for good. Wiley, who had three steals in the quarter, rolled in a 10-footer to make it 18-16 and Sapienza finished the spurt with a free throw. Another putback by Wiley and a 3-pointer by freshman point guard Sarah Yager gave Crater a 28-21 advantage with 1:45 to play in the half. Ashland bounced back to within 28-26 on Snow Staples' 3-pointer. But again Crater responded as Sapienza ended the half with a three-point play as the Comets outscored Ashland 21-10 in the quarter to make it 31-26. "Looking at game film and their scores, Ashland has scored a lot of points in the second quarter," Yager said. "We wanted to beat them in the second quarter." It was one of those rare times the Grizzlies have trailed at the intermission this season. "They were making smart decisions and we weren't reacting," Pippa said. "We weren't playing our game." Crater pushed the lead to 34-26 to start the third quarter before Ashland matched its biggest run of the night with six straight points as Hannah Seltzer buried one of three 3-pointers, Woods hit a free throw and Pippa tossed in a jumper from the lane. That closed the gap to 34-32. Then a Crater turnover and foul put Pippa at the line with a chance to tie. Neither shot fell and as became her custom during the night, Sapienza finished the quarter with two points. That stemmed the tide and gave the Comets a 36-32 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. McLeod took over at that point, scoring on a couple of putbacks as Crater extended its lead to 45-36. "That showed a lot of maturity, not to fold, when they got within two," Heard said. "We were much more active defensively than last time." As the teams paraded to the foul line in the final minutes, Crater connected on 11 of 17 free throws. "We wanted to show people we're not gone yet," said Wiley, the lone returning starter from last year's state runner-up. "We're not going to lay down and we were playing for third place tonight." And maybe more. ASHLAND (51) -- Morgan 9, Staples 3, Bullen 2, Seltzer 11, Pippa 12, Woods 12, McNaught 12, Noyes 0. Totals: 13-48 19-31 51. CRATER (61) -- Yager 3, Chase 0, Hemphill 2, Robbins 4, Sapienza 12, Durbin 0, McLeod 10, Wiersma 0, Wiley 24, Johnson 0, Arreola 6. Totals: 22-54 16-27 61. Ashland ..........16 10 6 19 -- 51 Crater .............10 21 5 25 -- 61 3-point goals -- Ashland 6-19 (Morgan 1, Bullen 1, Seltzer 3, Woods 1). Crater 1-11 (Yager 1). Fouled out -- Seltzer, Arreola. JV score -- Crater 43, Ashland 40. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.