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Crater cruises by Tualatin Denson paces the Comets with a tournament-high 31 points By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune PORTLAND - Amy Denson is on a mission. As much was apparent Wednesday night at the Chiles Center, as Denson erupted for a tournament-high 31 points to haul the No. 2-ranked Crater girls basketball team to a 65-44 victory over Tualatin in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament. The Timberwolves, the No. 15 seed and a 74-51 loser to the Comets during the regular season, held leads of 12-11 after one quarter and 23-19 at the half before Crater got untracked. Sophomore forward Katie Robertson hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first 30 seconds of the second half, and the Comets, aiming for their first state title after finishing as runner-up three of the last four years, never trailed again. "I thought the key to the whole game was Katie Robertson," Crater head coach David Heard said. "She comes out and makes two threes, and now we're over the hump. Sometimes it's hard to get over that hump. Once we're over the hump, we start going inside to Amy, and she dominated the second half." Denson was also dominant in the first half, when she tallied the last 14 of her team's 19 total points to keep the Comets with Tualatin. Denson, who finished 14-for-18 from the field, made 6 of 7 field goals in the opening 16 minutes, but her teammates were a combined 2-for-21. After Robertson's consecutive 3's helped Crater relax to start the third quarter, Denson went back to work with a bevy of moves - all successful - on the right block. A 6-foot-1 senior post headed to Arizona State next fall, Dennison scored 12 points in the quarter as the second-seeded Comets (24-1 overall) opened a 41-31 edge. "My teammates just got me the ball in the right spots," said Denson, who also produced a game-high 12 rebounds and two blocks in 29 minutes. "I don't know why, but I just kept going (to the right block). Might as well." Denson took a pass from senior point guard Sarah Pool, hit a layup and added a free throw eight seconds into the fourth quarter to push Crater's lead to 44-31. The Timberwolves (17-8) got no closer than 11 points in the remaining 7 minutes, 52 seconds. Until Denson missed two outside jump shots at the tail end of the fourth, she was 8-for-9 from the floor in the second half. Her huge game helped offset a frustrating night for Pool, the Comets' other star. Headed to California-Berkeley next year, Pool scored Crater's first three points of the game, then didn't score again until she made a pair of free throws with 4:51 to go in the third. The state's second-leading scorer entering the tournament at 20.5 points per game (behind Denson's 20.7), Pool finished with 14 points on the strength of a nine-point fourth quarter. She was incessantly harassed by Tualatin senior guard Kristin Thornburg. "She was in my underwear all night," said Pool, who is second to Denson on the Comets' all-time career-scoring list. "She did a great job playing defense on me. She denied me the ball. She was just there the whole time and made it tough for me to play my normal game." Despite her 3-for-11 shooting performance from the field, Pool did aide her team in other ways, dropping 8 of 12 free throws, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing six assists. Robertson struck for 13 points, making 3-of-4 from 3-point range, and grabbed six rebounds. The Timberwolves were paced by 14 points from sophomore guard Lindsay Mengis and 11 points from senior post Kelli Highland. Crater meets Glencoe, a 28-19 winner over Springfield on Wednesday night and the tournament's seventh seed, at 8:45 tonight in quarterfinal action. "I thought we were rusty, but I thought (Tualatin) did a good job," said Heard, whose team had last played on Feb. 12. "Your goal is to advance. And I told the girls, 'If we only win by one point the whole tournament, that's great.'" TUALATIN (44) - Mengis 5-13 1-1 14, Beck 0-1 0-1 0, Thornburg 1-3 0-2 2, Highland 5-15 1-4 11, Ch. Roby-Sage 0-3 1-2 1, Co. Roby-Sage 2-5 4-7 8, Brakinreed 2-4 4-5 8, Fritts 0-0 0-0 0, Godfrey 0-1 0-0 0, Mellinger 0-0 0-0 0, Jensen 0-0 0-0 0, Holland 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-45 11-22 44. CRATER (65) - Yager 0-4 0-0 0, Wiersma 0-4 0-0 0, Pool 3-11 8-12 14, Robertson 4-9 2-2 13, Denson 14-18 2-5 31, Huntley 1-1 3-3 5, LeBel 1-2 0-0 2, Black 0-1 0-0 0, Kinney 0-0 0-0 0, Anhom 0-0 0-0 0, Maartense 0-0 0-0 0, Stoner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 15-22 65. Tualatin...................................................12 11 8 13 - 44 Crater........................................................11 8 22 24 - 65 Halftime - Tualatin 23, Crater 19. 3-point goals - Tualatin 3-8 (Mengis 3-7, Brakinreed 0-1), Crater 4-14 (Yager 0-4, Pool 0-3, Robertson 3-4, Denson 1-2, Black 0-1). Rebounds - Tualatin 29 (Highland 6), Crater 41 (Denson 12). Assists - Tualatin 9 (three with 2), Crater 11 (Pool 6). Fouled out - Ch. Roby-Sage. Team fouls - Tualatin 19, Crater 20. A - N/A. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.