By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
HARRISBURG, Ore.– For the third-straight year, the Jefferson Girls Basketball team has won the Harrisburg tournament. The achievement comes off the heels of the Lions 62-18 win over the host Eagles, the second time that Jefferson has defeated Harrisburg in their stretch.
“Our ball movement, our offensive ball movement was way better than it has been. Our defense was really good, trying a new defense that we did last year very little…I think that will help us going into the season,” said Luella Campbell.
The Lions defense didn’t allow more than seven points in a quarter in the victory against a Harrisburg squad that entered the contest 7-3 on the year and was in the Top 15 in 3A.
Aziza Saad hit six of Jefferson’s ten three-pointers as the junior finished with 24 points, Gretchen Orton had three other three pointers as the senior finished with 22 points. Genieve Orton finished with nine points. Kenzie Williams, Aliya Saad and Belle Kunkel each scored in the victory Saturday night.
“I think it’s really good for us because we got to go into league in two weeks or so, the confidence boost for us will help us out a little bit more,” Orton said. “It shows how much work we’ve been putting in since the start of the season to right now. Even over the break that we’ve had, we’ve stayed in the gym and we continued to get better.”
It’ll be a quick turnaround for the Lions as they’ll host Creswell on Monday before restarting PacWest Conference January 7 against Willamina.
