By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.– Down 17 to start the second half against Jefferson, the Dayton Girls Basketball team came out firing.
They trailed 30-13 at this point, but that deficit was quickly reduced to single-digits within the first two-and-a-half minutes of the half. Eventually the Pirates got back within single-digits with the Lions off a Bella Lopez three-pointer with 5:23 remaining, trailing Jefferson 30-23 with the momentum on their side.
“We were trying to get up with the points and start it so we can go from there,” said Dayton’s Hadley Hughes. “Playing these better teams makes us play better, we just need to be tougher when we play these high-level teams and try to stay with them the best that we can.
“We’re just trying to maintain our spot in league so we can get a league playoff game and hopefully get into the State Playoff First Round.”
It was a test for both teams as both teams try to solidify their league playoff positioning, the league playoffs starting here in two weeks.
The Pirates are looking to lock-up the fifth, and final league playoff spot while the Lions are looking to keep pace with Amity and Taft. Both the Warriors and Tigers are ahead of Jefferson in the league standings and the Lions play both of them this week once more.
“After a couple of turnovers, it was really important for us to collect ourselves and reset. We know that we’re going to be playing some teams this week that are going to be able to take advantage of us and bounce back if we don’t stay calm and collected,” said Jefferson’s Luella Campbell.
“It showed us what we need to work on and how we need to come out and how we need to play and that we can be better than we did that first week,” Campbell said of their first time playing Dayton, Taft and Amity.
Jefferson went on a 10-0 run of their own to rebuild their 17 point lead, only to see Dayton cut it down to 12 a minute into the fourth quarter. But the Pirates couldn’t piece together one more big run to put some additional late pressure on Jefferson as the Lions closed out the game 54-35.
Aziza Saad led the Lions with 26 points, Jefferson will host Taft on Wednesday. Hughes led the Pirates with 19 points, Dayton will be off until Friday when they travel to Taft.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
