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Girls offer lesson on equality in hoops By Greg Stiles Midway through the Southern Oregon Conference boys and girls basketball seasons an interesting pattern has developed. The top-echelon SOC girls teams are outscoring the top boys teams. What's more the leading individual scorers are in a virtual dead-heat. If it's not the first time in the quarter century since SOC girls began playing, its a real rarity. There have been girls that averaged in the 20s before, but rarely have girls teams consistently put up points as Crater and Ashland this season. Crater's second-ranked girls are averaging 65.9 points against the SOC and Ashland 64.8. Grants Pass boys, also ranked No. 2, are averaging 65.8 points. "The girls game has really elevated," Crater coach David Heard. "The bottom line is that if you don't have a hand on somebody, they'll make the shots." Ashland's Jackie Woods is scoring 18.4 points per game and Klamath Union's Sam Gilbert 18.3. South Medford's Eric Fiegi leads SOC boys scorers at 18.5 per game. The numbers that Heard relishes, of course, are his team's shooting statistics. Crater is shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and 40.3 percent from behind the 3-point arc. Only one starter is shooting less than 50 percent. Although he thinks there is room for improvement, the 60.4 free throw shooting percentage is the highest of any girls team he's coached. The Comets are No. 24 by HoopPlanet.Com and No. 30 in Fox Sports' Fab 50. Crater also earned some virtual ink on FoxSports.Com's Full Court Press - although the reporter called it Center Point. The article entitled: Fire in the Sky discusses Crater's trips to California, mentions Amy Denson, Sarah Pool and Jody McLeod. We also learn Crater uses eight different zone defenses. "It's sort of an honor to be ranked nationally and I think the program is good enough to be ranked nationally," Heard says. "But to our team, it's sort of like the state rankings were last year, where your ranking and 50 cents gets you a cup of coffee." What Heard can't understand, however, is how USA Today ranks Berkeley - a team the Comets beat by 19 points in California - and overlooks Crater in its West rankings. "We beat them down there and beat them at full strength," Heard says. "It's one of those things based on reputation." Reputation won't hurt the Comets next month when the state tournament seeding committee gathers. The Comets could wrap up a share of the SOC title by winning their next two games, giving them a three-game advantage over Ashland with three to play. Even so, the remaining three games will carry weight they didn't in past years. Although the latest Class 4A girls coaches poll ranks Crater No. 1, Heard says he would just as soon be No. 2. "If we're seeded No. 2, we'd play Tuesday at 8:45 and then get Wednesday off," Heard says. "If we're No. 1, we could be playing at 8:45 four nights in a row." Although Internet posters anticipate a Crater-Oregon City final, Heard says he won't be thinking about the Pioneers until Friday night of the state tournament. "That might be what people want and foresee," Heard admits. "But there are some other teams that can beat you before you get that far." One fear Heard has is that defending state champion Westview is on the verge of making a miraculous comeback. Senior twins Kara and Kim Brown-Braxton, who have signed letters of intent to play at Georgia, have been academically ineligible and senior guard Angie Wells has had a broken thumb. The Wildcats are 6-7 overall and 5-5 in the Metro League, two games behind fourth place. Kara Brown-Braxton, who stands 6-foot-5, could return to practice as early as today, although Kim may not return. Wells is also expected to be back in the lineup soon. If Westview were to reel in the final Metro playoff berth, the Wildcats would stand a good chance of playing the SOC's runner-up for the right to play in the tournament. "I wouldn't want to be the SOC's No. 2 team having to play Westview for a spot in the tournament," Heard concedes. * * * FEW CHANGES ARE ON the horizon for Southern Oregon's Class 4A, 3A and 2A schools when the Oregon School Activities Association begins its next four-year block in the fall of 2002. While towns with multiple highs schools are adding new schools, several 3A and 2A schools with declining enrollments appear headed toward smaller classifications. Although the committee was asked to reduce Class 4A to eight districts, it appears nine will remain the operative number. And although that means the SOC will - more often than not - have three teams in the state playoffs rather than four, the conference appears to be in support of the status quo. "The main thing is that you don't want to clear up one problem and create more," says Bruce Howell, Medford's coordinator of secondary athletics. The classification and districting committee currently has 83 schools on the drawing board. That includes three new schools: Hillsboro is adding a fourth high school, Summit High of Bend opens next fall and West Salem goes on line in 2002. The present proposal is for St. Mary's Academy (an all girls school) to move to the Mount Hood Conference from the Metro League, Hood River would leave the Mount Hood for the Intermountain Conference and Lebanon would join the Midwestern League. At present, the major changes would be at the 2A level, where the Big Fir League could soon have 11 members (but only eight with football teams). Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.