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46 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, February 25, 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 2, 2004 North boys hope third time’s the charm against South By KRIS HENRY Mail Tribune Cautiously optimistic best describes the North Medford boys basketball team as it prepares to enter the South Medford gym again Tuesday. The last time the Black Tornado stepped foot on South’s home court, the mood wasn’t nearly as upbeat after suffering a 95-31 drubbing in the Abby’s Holiday Classic championship game. But a month has past, and much has changed in the North camp. "We’re another month along now and I think we’re better prepared to sustain the kind of basketball we need to play to stay with teams on the top level like South," says third-year North head coach Tim Sam. Advertisement The Black Tornado (11-6, 5-2 SOC) exemplified that this past Friday with a 59-56 overtime victory against eighth-ranked Grants Pass. Sam hopes his team will use that win as a springboard into even greater things to come, hopefully beginning with Tuesday’s 7 p.m. tilt at South (16- 1, 7-0). "We’re learning how to win on the basketball floor," says Sam, whose team is 0-2 against the Panthers this season. "Friday night was a big step and Tuesday’s going to be a big challenge, too. Certainly beating a quality Grants Pass team boosts our confidence and has the kids believing they can (beat South) for the first time in a while." While the second-ranked Panthers aren’t foolish enough to take any team for granted, their confidence level might be a notch higher than North considering they have won eight straight over the Tornado and nine of the last 10. "There’s no way we’ll overlook those guys," says 16th-year South head coach Dennis Murphy, "we have too much pride for that. "It’s a crosstown rival and it’s an important game for us. We set our goal to win as many as we can." Tuesday’s game also culminates a "three-game tournament" Murphy envisioned for the Panthers, beginning with last Tuesday’s game at Grants Pass. A 61-60 win that night advanced South into the "semifinals," with this past Friday’s 62-47 win over Roseburg placing the Panthers into Tuesday’s "finals" against North. "We told the kids as in any tournament," says Murphy, "it only gets tougher the further along you go. I really expect our kids to play as well or even better as they did in Roseburg." The Tornado’s lone win in the past 10 meetings came at South in 2000, when North rallied from a 40-24, fourth-quarter deficit to score an upset minus former North coach Gene Quilhaugh, who received a double technical foul in the third quarter and was sent to the locker room. Quilhaugh’s assistants at the time, Jerry Shults and Sam, teamed to guide the Tornado rally. The two prior meetings this season, however, have been runaway victories for the Panthers — the first coming in the aforementioned Abby’s game on Dec. 31, and the second six days later in an 80-47 win at North to open conference play. While the first meeting was essentially over a couple minutes into the fray, the Tornado led 30-26 with three minutes to play in the first half of the second meeting before succumbing to a 34-7 run by the Panthers over the next 11 minutes. "We can only hope the third time’s the charm," says Sam. "We know South’s an excellent ballclub. We’re going to have to play our hearts out again like we did on Friday to get the job done." The Tornado will once again be without the services of senior shooting guard Beau Hovland, serving the second game of a two-game suspension for disciplinary reasons. "Certainly Beau’s part of our success, but we still get to put five guys on the floor," says Sam. "We’ve got nine or 10 players who can contribute and seven different players who have led us in scoring." "The neat thing about our team," adds Sam, "is that the kids understand it’s a team game and they are playing great team basketball and not worrying who does all the scoring." Ryan Lucas, Hovland, Kyle Williamson and Ty Ryan have each notched top scoring honors thus far in SOC play for North, but face a talent-rich Panther team featuring Craig Johnson, Ryan Fiegi, Kyle Singler, et. al. Johnson is the SOC’s leading scorer in conference (17.3 points per game) and overall (18.7 ppg), while Fiegi has twice scored a career-high 23 points against the Tornado and is third in SOC scoring at 15.3 points per game. Singler has averaged 16 points in his only two games against North. Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, 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! 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