By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
LINCOLN CITY, Ore.– Executing on both sides of the court aided Taft in their 63-37 victory over Jefferson on Monday night in PacWest Conference play at Taft High School.
The Tigers came out aggressive on defense. They pressed and used their size advantage to get some deflections that turned into steals and they transitioned that into points on the offensive side of the court.
Setting the tone early in the game as both teams entered the PacWest Conference game with undefeated league records. Taft led Jefferson 22-9 after the first quarter.
Coming off a successful season last year where they, like the Lions, reached Coos Bay, aspirations are high to return this year. Since their 1-3 start to the year, the Tigers have won ten of their last 11 games going into Wednesday’s league game with Dayton.
“That’s our goal to get back there. We’ve come across some adversity early on and I think the girls really learned from some of our mistakes. I still think there’s still a ton of improvement with my team still. Just trying to figure out how to bring all the pieces together every night,” said Taft Head Coach Jake Tolan.
“Whether it’s the post hitting their shots. Tonight, they did really well and took advantage of our strength in size. We’re going to have that advantage and sometimes we miss the easy one’s. We have things to work on, but I like where we’re at. (Jefferson) beat us three times last year. Jefferson’s a great team, they’re scrappy, they shoot the ball really well. For us, it’s a good win, but it’s just another win. We got Dayton on Wednesday and that’s our most important game of the season. One at a time.”
Jefferson cut the lead to eight about 75 seconds into the second quarter before Taft extended their lead into double-digits again. Turning what was a 22-14 lead into a 27-14 lead in a hurry. The Lions responded, getting back to within seven midway through the second quarter and trailed the Tigers by a respectable 11 points at the halftime break.
It was 33-22 at halftime.
But a strong start to the second half by Taft allowed the Tigers to pull away for good to hand the Lions their first league defeat of the season while Taft improves to 6-0 in league play.
“They do some stuff very well and they have a lot more size than anybody that we’ve played so far, so that presents a different challenge. I think we made a lot of mistakes and we gave them a lot of opportunities that they capitalized on,” said Jefferson Head Coach Zach Maison. “We’ve had a bunch of them this year already. We know that we can turn around and play tough games against really good teams. We know we can compete. I’m really proud of our girls tonight for competing all the way through, not giving up and not hanging heads. That’s not who we are, this will be a good week for us.”
Aziza Saad led the Lions with 16 points with four three-pointers, Geneieve Orton contributed another nine points in the defeat for Jefferson. Aida Lupo led Taft with 23 points and Laney Lee contributed another 17 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
