By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
JEFFERSON, Ore.– It’s weird to think about where the point total would have been had Jefferson’s Aziza Saad had not been limited to a handful of minutes in a handful of games her freshman season at Jefferson High School.
But nonetheless Saad, now halfway through her senior season, has made the most of the last two-and-a-half years. She’s been a part of three Lions squads that made it to the 3A State Second round, dating back to her freshman year, and contributed to Jefferson’s historic fifth-place finish in State last year as a junior. All coming off the heels of tearing her ACL and Meniscus as an eighth-grader.
Then, on January 21, as she scored her final basket in what became an 58-20 victory over Blanchet Catholic in PacWest Conference play, Saad recorded her 1,000th career point. That total has been added to since with their game’s against Santiam Christian and Willamina over the last week since accomplishing the feat.
Averaging nearly 20 points a game this year as a senior, Saad has stepped up into a bigger scorer role for the Lions, who are currently 11-5 overall and 8-2 in PacWest Conference play.
“It was really cool because it wasn’t something that I thought I’d do, or thought about at all. It’s just fun seeing how far I’ve come after that injury,” said Saad. “It’s exciting to really step up, not only to step up, but get that confidence to know that I can lead the team. We really work well as a team together and we’ve been passing a lot better. We’ve been hyping each other up a lot more and the core group of us really work well together.”
The job isn’t done yet for Saad and Jefferson however. With a rematch with the Bulldogs, they’re looking to build some momentum into another tough week ahead next week with Dayton, Taft and Amity on the docket that could go a long way for Conference and possible 3A State Playoff positioning.
“It’ll be big to go out strong. To start kind of the week with the win and hopefully that’ll help us carry over our confidence and not to give up too soon. Not to let up and hopefully that’ll help carry over to next week,” said Saad.
The Lions head to Willamina on Saturday before heading to Dayton on Monday to start that big week upcoming for Jefferson.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
