By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
JEFFERSON, Ore.– The Jefferson Girls Basketball team really tore the game open in the third quarter of Wednesday’s 58-42 victory over Burns to open the 3A State Playoffs.
The Lions entered the second half with a seven-point lead over the Highlanders, taking a 32–25 advantage against their Eastern Oregon opponent after a highly contested first half. The opening half was back-and-forth throughout, and it wasn’t until the closing minutes that Jefferson gained the upper hand over Burns.
And despite already leading by seven, they knew too that the next run could ultimately decide the game, so the game plan was to come out of the halftime break as hard as they could to make sure it was them that made that one run to give them some more breathing space.
“The first half was so back-and-forth, that it was going to come down to if anybody could make a run and separate,” said Jefferson Head Coach Zach Maison. “We knew that they were a good team, we knew that they were going to make a run and we were trying to do the same thing. Whoever could do that would take the momentum going into the rest of the third and fourth quarter.”
The strategy worked. Their defense, anchored by Luella Campbell, got the rebounds and they made the stops to get the turnovers. Their offense executed. Aziza Saad, in her final home game at Jefferson High School, scored 15 of her 32 points in the third quarter that saw the Lions leading the Highlanders 51-35 going into the fourth quarter.
“We knew coming out strong and scoring those first couple of points and really getting momentum will do it for us. Making sure we’re talking on defense, making sure we really cover everything and just work hard as a team,” said Campbell.
“We tried man (defense). We tried sticking with their two guards, that was the game plan. I think we were hoping to get a little bit more out of our press, they transitioned very well so we ended up abandoning the press at half.in hopes to get back a little more. I just think they just showed up tonight. Shots were falling for them, not so much for us and that’s sometimes how it goes,” said Burns Head Coach Jamie Rusow.
For Rusow’s crew, they closed out the year 15-12 and 8-2 in Eastern Oregon League play a year after reaching Coos Bay where they finished fourth. With a solid core returning next season, they’re hoping that the 2026-2027 season will be the year that they’ll return to Coos Bay once again. But for those two seniors who are graduating, Addie Robbins and Hayley Smith, both will hold a special place for Rusow beyond this season.
“I told our squad that we have a bright future. We’ll be a good, strong squad next year again and this could be a team we could face again. Play these teams, remember them and remember what it’s like,” said Rusow. “We lost two seniors (from this year’s squad), we love and adore those kids, they will be missed. That’s my freshman group, my first group of players.”
Bayley Temple led Burns with 17 points in the season finale.
As for Jefferson, it’s onto Creswell. It’s the fourth-time in the last four years that the Lions and Bulldogs have played with Jefferson taking the previous three games. And similar to last year, this match-up will have a trip to Coos Bay on the line.
“I think beating them here last year to go to Coos was really big for us, so they’ll definitely want to get us back for that. It’s been like this rivalry between us for the last three years and I know that they’ll want to come out hard and really beat us. That’s going to really motivate us,” said Campbell, who finished with ten points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
