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Pirates gain berth in 3A tourney Photo by Drew Fleming Sutton Jackson, left, embraces Phoenix teammates Megan Capp (12) and Beth Nikodym as Maria Gonzalez, right, leaps into the pack after the Pirates' playoff win over Myrtle Point. Balanced attack upends Bobcats By DON HUNT PHOENIX -- Those connected with Skyline Conference girls basketball gave the Phoenix Pirates about the same chance of reaching the Class 3A state tournament as John McCain is being given of reaching the White House. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. While McCain desperately needs a big showing on Super Tuesday to stay in the thick of the presidential race, the Pirates will take on The Dalles at 9 a.m. that same day in an opening-round state tournament game at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. The Pirates punched their implausible ticket to state Saturday with a 50-46 victory over Myrtle Point. "This team has surpassed everyone's expectations," Phoenix coach Kyle Walker said after his Pirates ran their season record to 14-9. "Quite honestly, we were simply hoping to make the conference playoffs (top five) and take it from there." Instead, the overachieving Pirates flirted all season with winning the Skyline Conference title. They ultimately finished second and thus needed to notch one victory on their home court to advance to the 3A tournament. Photo by Drew Fleming Jennifer Bones, left, angles in for a shot against Chelise Pugmire. That victory came Saturday, and in typical Pirates fashion: Lots of players contributing in different ways. Maria Gonzalez led the Pirates with 13 points, while Jessica Prisbrey, Tara Curtis and Jennifer Bones added eight each. Sutton Jackson came off the bench for five important points in the third period, and Beth Nikodym had four. Phoenix has gotten by without a go-to girl all season, but sophomore Maria Gonzalez is beginning to take on that burden. The 5-foot-1, 98-point point guard emerged Saturday with seven assists, three steals and a mere two turnovers to augment her 13 points. Just as importantly, she made the biggest basket of the day -- a 3-point bomb with 3:26 remaining that padded a precarious 42-40 Pirates lead to 45-40. The timely trey, launched from the left wing, suppressed a Myrtle Point run that saw the Bobcats rally from a 38-28 deficit heading into the fourth period. "That 3-pointer stopped the bleeding and got our crowd back in the game," Walker said. "It was huge." Gonzalez, who didn't crack the starting lineup until midseason, said after the game that she's comfortable taking the big shots. "I wasn't looking to shoot much at all a few weeks ago," said Gonzalez, who also sank a 3-pointer in the first half Saturday. "But my teammates kept encouraging me and now I know I can make shots when I'm open." And exactly what was going through her mind when her crucial howitzer left her hand? "That it was going in." Curtis made a driving layup along the baseline and Bones added a free throw with 1:10 remaining, boosting Phoenix's advantage to 48-40. The Bobcats weren't dead yet, however. Darlene Kight, Myrtle Point's leading scorer on the season, had just two points until burying two free throws and a 10-foot jumper from the baseline with 23 seconds to go that -- coupled with four missed free throws by Phoenix -- inched the Bobcats within 48-44. But Prisbrey netted a pair of free throws with 13.2 seconds remaining to give Phoenix a six-point cushion. Myrtle Point freshman post Kelsey Richards hit a rebound basket at the buzzer for the final margin. Richards led the Bobcats with 11 points. "We came out flat and seemed to be out of sync most of the game," said Myrtle Point coach Marty Stallard, whose teams won five straight Far West League championships before settling for third place this season. "We didn't really start playing until the last five or six minutes of the game." Myrtle Point operated without starting point guard Rosie Sweetman, who was diagnosed with mononucleosis last week. "That definitely hurt," Stallard said. "But we could have won without her." The Pirates were also out of sync in the first period when they committed 12 of their 25 turnovers -- many of them errant passes that sailed over the heads of their intended targets. But Phoenix still managed a 9-8 lead and led 23-19 at the half. "Two things," Walker said of the early-game errors. "We had a little case of the jitters and we hadn't played a game in eight days." The contest remained close in the third period until Jackson came off the bench and provided the Pirates a big spark. The 5-8 junior scored all five of her points in a span of 50 seconds -- three free throws and an acrobatic fastbreak layup that was launched from under the basket. "Maria (Gonzalez) threw me a great pass but I was under the rim when I caught it and just threw it up," Jackson said. "That one was a little lucky." The five quick points allowed Phoenix to extend a 27-25 lead to 32-25. MYRTLE POINT (46) --Richards 11, Sturgill 8, Kasper 8, Kight 6, F. Snider 5, Pugmire 4, Love 4, McNeely 0, Kennedy 0, K. Snider 0. Totals: 19-54 8-13 46. PHOENIX (50) --Gonzalez 13, Prisbrey 8, Curtis 8, Bones 8, Jackson 5, Nikodym 4, Clark 2, Merideth 2. Totals: 15-40 17-31 50. Myrtle Point ...............8 11 9 18 -- 46 Phoenix ...................9 14 15 12 -- 50 3-point goals -- Phoenix 3 (Gonzalez 2, Bones 1). Fouled out -- Kaspar. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA