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Comets hit goal of making final four By GREG STILES PORTLAND -- It's back to square one for the Crater Comets. They rolled into the semifinals of the Class 4A state girls basketball tournament with a 52-41 victory over the Wilson Trojans Thursday night. But now the seventh-ranked Comets (23-3), who play No. 3 Beaverton (24-2) at 8:45 p.m. tonight, have run the table on their preseason goals after becoming just the third Southern Oregon Conference team to reach the semifinals in the 25 years of the tournament. "We wrote down three goals at the beginning of the season and took them home," said Crater coach David Heard. "Out first goal was to win the next game. Our second was to win the conference championship, to make our seeding easier for state. The third goal was to make the final four. "I'm not sure if they know what it meant -- winning tonight -- because they're so young. Now I've told them to go back to goal No. 1." The Comets demonstrated their ability to attack from the outside a day after relying on their inside game in a first-round win over Tigard. And instead of putting this one away in the middle quarters, as they did on Wednesday, they started strong and finished with a flurry after allowing No. 9 Wilson (23-3) to seize a brief lead in the third quarter. Sophomore guards Sarah Yager and Sarah Pool, who combined for two points against Tigard, unraveled Wilson's defensive plans by accounting for 28 points -- 17 in the first quarter. Crater hit 4 of 7 first-half 3-pointers. "We knew we had to guard against the 3-pointer, but we weren't expecting so much early on," said Wilson senior Jill Pinkstaff. ``We thought they'd get tired, but they didn't so we had to switch to a 3-2 zone, go with a bigger lineup and put more pressure on their wings." Pool recovered from an 0-for-8 effort from the floor the previous night by scoring 12 points and dishing out seven assists. Yager was a house afire, drilling 5 of 7 field goal attempts, including 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point arc in scoring a season-high 16 points. She hit both of her free throws and had three steals. That was more than the much taller Trojans had bargained for. "We knew we couldn't go inside tonight and Sarah Yager set it up for us big-time," said Pool. "Last night, I was really, really nervous. I told myself to calm down and play hard." Yager, whose previous high was 14 points Dec. 18 against Hidden Valley, stepped up when presented the opportunity. "I haven't been getting open 3s," Yager said. "I was just expecting to play hard. We've all accepted our roles. Tonight they were giving me open 3s and I took advantage of them. "Once we hit those outside shots, Sarah was able to do what she did best, penetrating and dishing out." Yager hit back-to-back treys to give the Comets an 18-8 advantage with 1:26 left in the first quarter. Crater maintained the margin as late as 1:07 left in the half as Amy Denson knocked down three shots in a row to make it 28-18. But the Comets let the Trojans off the hook as 6-foot-3 Jenny Shetters went to work on the baseline in the final 85 seconds of the second quarter, scoring six points. Kristen McEwen, who missed her only 3-pointer against Milwaukie on Wednesday, put Wilson right back in it with a trey from the top of the key at the buzzer. The Trojans, who had won 19 straight, kept on charging as the third quarter started. Stephanie Burnham, a 6-2 forward, scored on a putback and then hit two free throws 68 seconds into the second half to give Wilson its only lead, 30-29. "We kind of let up for a while," Yager said. "Coach Heard said we let up like that again and we won't keep winning." Oddly enough, after taking the lead, Wilson showed little exhilaration, and Crater calmly retook the lead. From that point the Comets outscored the Portland Interscholastic League champion 24-12. Denson, who had 12 points, responded to Burnham's free throws with a 17-footer. Then Janell Sapienza, who tossed in 10 points, got a nice assist from Pool. "I thought when they went ahead, that next one or two possessions were critical," Heard said. "When Denson scored, we answered the call and that calmed everything down. "If we hadn't scored for four or five possessions, it would have been far different." Crater led 36-31 after three quarters and pushed the lead to 44-33 on a 3-pointer by Yager and two free throws by Sapienza. Yager's drive and one-hand shot, Sapienza's backdoor move and a lob pass by Pool and two free throws by Yager put it away with three minutes to play and Crater up, 50-35. Shetters topped Wilson with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while McEwen added 10 points. "This is quite a big deal for us," said Sapienza. "The last time I was up here, it was mainly to watch. It was cool to see. Now I know what it's like to be in the final four." WILSON (41) -- Alexander 1, Utter 0, K. Pinkstaff 3, J. Pinkstaff 3, Kubin 0, McEwan 10, Rattay 1, Burnham 7, White 0, Gunderson 4, Shetters 12, Porter 0. Totals: 14-40 10-13 41. CRATER (52) -- Yager 16, Chase 0, Hemphill, Anhorn 0, Pool 12, Sapienza 10, McLeod 2, LeBel 0, Hal 0l, Nafie 0, Denson 12, Johnson 0. Totals: 20-51 7-15 52. Wilson ............10 15 6 10 -- 41 Crater .............18 18 8 16 -- 52 3-point goals -- Wilson 3 (K. Pinkstaff 1, McEwan 1, J. Pinkstaff 1), Crater 5 (Yager 4, Pool 1). Rebounds -- Wilson 34 (Shetters 12), Crater 30 (McLeod 7). Turnovers -- Wilson 15, Crater 7. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA