GIRLS HOOPS: Struggles in fourth doom North

Dec. 10—Seeking their first win of the season Friday night, the North Medford girls basketball team found themselves right in the thick of things late in the third quarter.

Then, in what felt like just a few short possessions, the Black Tornado's momentum was gone.

North Medford was never able to take the lead after rallying back from its third-quarter deficit, as Westview rattled off nine straight points as part of a 12-2 run on its way to a 49-40 win in the nonleague matchup at the Black Tornado's gym.

"We were kind of trying to get through a lot of foul trouble unfortunately," said North head coach JT Thomas. "That seems to be a bug that we're having to work through right now. We're just getting in foul trouble early and that just changes the complexity of things for us. We got off to a really good start, then we're starting to manage minutes a little bit differently than we hoped to."

North (0-2), which was coming off a 55-26 loss to Oregon City seven days ago in its season opener, held a slim 26-24 lead coming out of the half. The Black Tornado trailed 31-26 before a Diya Patel 3-pointer from the right wing and a runner in the lane by Shyannah Jackson tied it up at 31-all.

But that's when Westview was able to quickly turn the tide in its favor again.

The Wildcats' 12-2 run spanned nearly six minutes of game time, pushing their lead into double digits at 43-33 midway through the fourth quarter.

After it was tied at 31-all, Westview (3-0) outscored North by an 18-9 margin, as North managed just 14 second-half points.

"I thought when we got our squad back out there (for the second half), we were hoping for the energy that we started with and it just didn't happen," said Thomas. "We picked up another couple of fouls and then we were in a different kind of game management that we hoped for."

"We just continued to mount the fouls and we're into the bench trying to ask them to do a lot of things that they typically wouldn't be in that period of time," he continued. "We had kids step up and hit some shots and keep us close for a time, but with all of the management of that to try and get us into a situation where we could crawl back tonight, we just didn't have enough."

North sophomore Caileigh Raines nearly recorded a double-double with a game-high 17 points and nine rebounds. Patel added nine points, all of which came from behind the arc on her trio of 3-pointers.

The Black Tornado and Wildcats each hit six 3s in the game.

Kaleah Medeiros and Delaney Logan each scored 15 points to pace Westview.

"Raines is starting to really settle into her role and she's had a couple of really good games against good squads," said Thomas. "She's doing her job in there, but we just have to get a little more consistency around her. I think we showed in spurts who we really can be, and we'll just focus on that and get back to business."

WESTVIEW (49): Logan 15, Medeiros 15, Chadwick 13, Stark 6, Morris 0, Bologoff 0, Giuzio 0. Totals: 15 13-20 49.

NORTH MEDFORD (40): Raines 17, Patel 9, Brownlee 5, Lane 3, Boger 2, Jackson 2, Hamlin 2, Stevens 0, Taylor 0, West 0, Harris 0. Totals: 15 4-4 40.

Westview7171114— 49

North Medford151159— 40

3-point goals — Westview 6 (Logan 3, Stark 2, Medeiros 1), North Medford 6 (Lane 1, Brownlee 1, Raines 1, Patel 3).

JV score — North Medford 33, Westview 12.

SOUTH MEDFORD 59, CARONDELET 49: At Honolulu, South Medford senior Donovyn Hunter recorded a triple-double to power the Panthers into the championship game of the Nike Iolani Classic for the first time.

Hunter finished with 25 points, 10 steals and 10 rebounds to lead South Medford (4-0), which likely will play Incarnate Word Academy from St. Louis — ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps — at 9:30 p.m. Pacific in Saturday's championship. The game is expected to be televised through the Hawaii ESPN affiliate.

Kendall Fealey supplied 13 points and seven rebounds and Sara Schmerbach chipped in with 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the Panthers.

Tatum Schmerbach added eight rebounds and two assists against Carondelet (7-1) out of California.

CARONDELET (49): Ross 3, Gregorious 4, Liu 0, Vitalicio 13, Reid 2, Arciviacono 4, Kent 11, Rodriguez 0, Cummins 8, Kostolantsky 4. Totals: 15-48 13-16 49.

SOUTH MEDFORD (59): Richardson 0, Hunter 25, Young 5, S. Schmerbach 11, Ceron 3, Barlow 0, Howell 0, Akpan 0, T. Schmerbach 2, Fealey 13. Totals: 26 5-10 59.

Carondelet10131313— 49

South Medford8181815— 59

3-point goals — Carondelet 6 (Ross 1, Vitalicio 3, Cummins 2), South Medford 2 (Hunter 1, S. Schmerbach 1).

CRESCENT VALLEY 55, CRATER 52, OT: At Corvallis, Crater had a chance to score a big early-season win over the reigning Class 5A state champions, but Crescent Valley was able to convert from the free-throw line to win in overtime.

Neither team led by more than five points the entire night, as Crater (2-3) had a chance to win in regulation but couldn't convert.

Crater's Addison Dippel scored 16 points and recorded five rebounds, seven steals and three assists. Sage Winslow finished with 13 points and had four steals, while Abigail Winslow had six points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals.

The Raiders (3-0) were led by Gabby Bland's 32 points. Crescent Valley finished 17-of-32 from the line — 20 of those attempts coming in the fourth quarter and overtime — as four Comets fouled out in the final two periods.

CRATER (52): Gugliotta 2, S. Winslow 13, Gish 0, Vranes 0, Weaver 0, Dippel 16, Munroe 0, McCauley 7, A. Winslow 6, Traore 8, Valencia 1. Totals: 19 11-13 52.

CRESCENT VALLEY (55): G. Bland 27, Koegler 0, H. Bland 7, Buford 0, Patel 9, Huang 2, Sanders 0, Campbell 6, Painter 2. Totals: 13 17-32 55.

Crater161311103— 52

Crescent Valley11181096— 55

3-point goals — Crater 4 (Dippel 2, McCauley 1, S. Winslow 1), Crescent Valley 4 (G. Bland 1, H. Bland 2, Patel 1). Fouled out — Gugliotta, S. Winslow, A. Winslow, Weaver.

JV score — Crater 30, Crescent Valley 27.

EAGLE POINT 47, WEST ALBANY 34: At Eagle Point, sophomore Thianna Deng-Gomez led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points for Eagle Point, which took over on defense and on the defensive glass in the second half of the nonconference victory.

Freshman Jill Garlitz poured in 11 points and came up with seven steals for the Eagles (3-1), who also picked up eight points apiece from sophomore Kady Lindstrom and freshman Kady Ledbetter.

The Eagles also forced the majority of West Albany's 21 turnovers in the second half.

WEST ALBANY (34): Baumgartner 5, Louber 8, Thompson 6, Pulvers 3, Konzelman 4, L. Barker 6, Hendrickson 2, B. Barker 0, Grace 0, Pope 0. Totals: 13 4-10 34.

EAGLE POINT (47): Dole 5, R. Baldwin 2, Garlitz 11, Lindstrom 8, Ledbetter 8, Cabrera 1, Gomez 12, Schauffler 0, Hanan 0. Totals: 18 8-12 47.

West Albany612106— 34

Eagle Point7141511— 47

3-point goals — West Albany 2 (Thompson 1, Pulvers 1), Eagle Point 2 (Dole 1, Garlitz 1). Fouled out — Thompson.

JV result — Eagle Point won.

PHOENIX 43, NORTH MARION 26: At Aurora, senior Morgan James recorded a double-double for Phoenix, which came away with 20 steals as a team to take command of host North Marion early in the second half.

James had 11 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals for the Pirates (3-1), who received a career-high 10 points from sophomore Ahlam Mohamud. Mohamud also had four boards and two steals.

Phoenix junior Anabell Delgado tallied nine points, eight steals and, alongside senior Ruby Rector, applied enough backcourt pressure to make it difficult for North Marion (0-2) to get its offense started.

The Pirates also outrebounded North Marion, 31-21.

PHOENIX (43): James 11, Nolan 5, Woodward 0, Mohamud 10, Vos 2, Delgado 9, Shull-Bain 0, Rector 4, McConnell 2. Totals: 16 10-17 43.

NORTH MARION (26): Alvord 0, Jones 1, Patzer 0, Coulombe 8, Curths 2, Briggs 4, Valenzuela 8, Shaffer 3, Pacheco 0. Totals: 6 14-22 26.

Phoenix8121310— 43

North Marion38213— 26

3-point goals — Phoenix 1 (Nolan 1).