By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
COOS BAY, Ore.– To be one of the six teams still playing on the final day of the season, the final Saturday in a classification of 47 teams that 3A has been their goal all season long.
Until Thursday afternoon, no Jefferson Girls Basketball team had won a State Tournament game at the final site. Until Friday, no Lion Girls Basketball program had even reached the State Semi’s, let alone placed on Saturday.
Jefferson won Thursday, reached the State Semi’s on Friday, and eventually placed on Saturday. Bringing home a fifth-place trophy for the trophy case back in Jefferson to close out a historic season for the program.
Fifth-place wasn’t the ideal finish for Jefferson, who made a late run on Amity Friday and had an experienced Coos Bay team in Vale team on the ropes Saturday, but they left a standard for the program going into next season for those returning.
“A pretty high one,” Jefferson Head Coach Zach Maison said of the standard. “Just in terms of how hard we work and how much we compete every game, all game. I think we set a really high standard for the next group and the next years. That’s one of the things I’m really proud of this group for. It’s one thing to get here and be one of the last few teams playing, but it’s how we got here is the best thing.”
For the final time this season, the Lions tipped it off against the Vikings. They came out strong, but Vale came up with some clutch plays when they needed to Turnovers here, rebounding there, a clutch basket to answer a Jefferson rally; the Vikings had answers for the Lions to keep Jefferson off their groove.
It was 15-11 Vale after one, and the Vikings led 25-19 at halftime. Jefferson made a rally in the third quarter, leading at one point 32-28 with 2:24 left in the third quarter following Genieve Orton going two-for-two at the free throw line. But a 10-3 run by the Vikings had Vale up 38-35 going into the final quarter of the season for both teams.
“Pure adrenaline. They’ve been here, they know how to be in these situations and I think that’s just experience. It’s the difference between us,” said Gretchen Orton.
Gretchen Orton and Bella Kunkel ended their prep careers at Coos Bay after seeing the program build up from a league playoff team as freshman to winning the program’s first-ever playoff game as sophomores, winning the program’s first league championship since 1989 and now snapping a 32-year drought by getting back to the Final Site.
“It’s everything we’ve worked for. Three years we’ve gotten so close and finally got here and got a trophy. I think it just shows how much we all put into this,” said Orton.
Jefferson kept it close in the fourth quarter but couldn’t pull ahead of Vale down the stretch. After Aziza Saad’s three-pointer with 5:44 left in the game that made it a 41-40 Vale lead, closed out the game with strong defense and hitting shots when they needed to.
For those returning, like Geneive Orton and Aziza Saad, having this experience will go a long way as they look to make another run at Coos Bay and continue what is slowly turning into a playoff tradition out in Jefferson.
“It’s really big, as long as we can keep pushing ourselves the next couple of years… we can come back and push ourselves, and it’s really big for us,” said Aziza Saad. “I’m really proud of us as a team. We kept fighting. Everyone knows that we’re such a small community, but we really came together and tried our best to do what we had to do. We stayed positive throughout it, our seniors were the best, and I’m happy we got to play together.”
Gretchen Orton finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists to lead Jefferson. Aziza Saad had 12 points and six rebounds as the Lions finished the year 22-8.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
