By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– The Crosshill Christian Girls Basketball team completed a historic feat Saturday afternoon in their 2A Opening Round Victory at home.
For the first time ever, the Eagles Girls Basketball team has advanced to the final site, to the Elite 8, for the first time ever in program history.
Crosshill Christian has been close in recent years in reaching the final site. Two years ago, in their final year in 1A, they got to the Round of 16. Same thing back in the 2016-2017 season. but each time they came up just shy of the Round of Eight.
And then, there was this year.
Another strong year for Crosshill, in just their second year in 2A and they took the next step. Eventually earning their way to the 2A State Playoffs as the four-seed and hosting Heppner on Saturday afternoon. The plan worked to perfection.
The plan, Head Coach Kevin Baker describes, is like building a house. Step-by-step you build the thing up and eventually the final result becomes what they’ve envisioned at the start of the season by the end of the season.
“We weren’t very great at the start of the season,” Kevin Baker starts. “But as the season goes on, we start tapering down our conditioning and we just keep getting better and better by the way we designed practices and the approach with the kids. The culture we built and it finally gets to the finished product. Hopefully that finished product is in the last three weeks of the season when it gets to State.
“We’re playing good basketball and I’m really happy for the girls.”
The Eagles home gym was packed for the game, and any nerves that they had didn’t show as they quickly jumped out to a 19-1 lead after the first quarter and led 33-7 by the halftime intermission en route to a 57-13 victory to clinch the program’s first time to the Round of Eight.
“I’m shocked. I’m overjoyed. I couldn’t be prouder of my teammates, my coaching staff. This community has been by us every second, every game. They hype us up, encouraged us, I could not be more proud of everybody right now,” said Zoey Baker.who cracked 1,000-career points earlier this season. “That first half. We were nervous, but we needed that for us. That helped us to keep going in the game and gave us momentum, that was really good for us.”
Baker had 15 points in her final home basketball game of her career. Kasey Zuidema led Crosshill with 16 points in the win. Maya Payne led Heppner with five points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
