EUGENE — North Medford continued its late-season push with a dramatic road victory against ninth-ranked Sheldon Friday.
After losing two earlier contests to the Irish, North Medford came away with a 71-62 overtime win in Southwest Conference girls basketball.
The victory — the Black Tornado's ninth in their last 10 games — guarantees No. 10 North Medford (19-5, 11-3 SWC) the conference's No. 2 spot in the Class 6A state playoffs and a possibility of a co-league title with the Irish (19-6, 12-2 SWC). The regular season ends Tuesday with North at South Eugene, while Sheldon is on the road at SWC third-place Roseburg.
"This should give our girls some confidence," North Medford coach Tim Karrick said. "We know in the playoffs we're going to have to go on the road and beat a top team like we did tonight. We're playing our best ball going into the playoffs."
North Medford had to stage a late comeback to send the game into overtime. The Black Tornado trailed by four points with 41 seconds left before Jana Parker connected for North's only 3-pointer of the game. After Sheldon's Katie Steigleman sank 1 of 2 free throws with 15 seconds left to put the Irish up 61-59, Lauren Berger tied the game with a turnaround jumper in the key with three seconds remaining.
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"Our conditioning helped," said Karrick. "We took the momentum from the fourth quarter and went with it."
Berger added six rebounds, three steals and two blocks in one of her better games of the season.
"We were definitely wanting to get the ball inside and (Berger) did a good job finishing," said Karrick.
Senior guard Megan Ross turned in a clutch performance with 17 points, five rebounds and only one turnover. Ross was 11 of 14 from the line, including six straight free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime.
"It was one of her best all-around games at North," said Karrick.
Junior post Erica Schultz added 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
"We kept clawing back," said Karrick, whose team trailed by as many as seven points in the second half. "We never got rattled or forced things. Our composure showed at the end."
NORTH MEDFORD (71) — Schultz 16, Satterfield 3, Dixon 2, Hodnett 5, Berger 21, Parker 7, Ross 17, Abeloe 0. Totals: 22 26-39 71.
SHELDON (62) — Ward 3, King 0, Pavlat 0, Steigleman 11, Pangilinan 0, McWilliams 0, Doe 0, Little 20, Ta. Brown 11, Th. Brown 17. Totals : 18 24-30 62.
North Medford 11 15 17 18 10 --71
Sheldon 13 16 16 16 1 --62
3 point goals — North Medford 1 (Parker 1), Sheldon 2 (Ward 1, Little 1). Fouled out — Hodnett, Little, Ta. Brown, Th. Brown.
JV result — North Medford won.
- ROSEBURG 75, SOUTH MEDFORD 54 — At Roseburg, Roseburg dusted off a slim halftime deficit to power past South Medford in a Southwest Conference contest.
Emily Salisbury's three third-quarter trifectas kept the Panthers (0-23, 0-14 SWC) afloat in the period, but were outscored 26-11 in the frame fueled by Roseburg's 9 of 10 made free throws.
Alanna Stevens had team-highs of 16 points and seven rebounds for the Panthers who were outscored 47-23 in the second half.
Roseburg's Brandi Campos and Katie Wilton each scored 13 points while Tracy Filley and Kristi Fallin added 11 points apiece.
In all, Salisbury connected on four from downtown for 12 points while Alicea Becker tossed in 13 points for Panthers.
SOUTH MEDFORD (54) — Towry 4, Daugherty 0, Stevens 16, Parsons 1, Pettey 8, Becker 13, Salisbury 12, McCoy 0, Newman 0, Kelly 0. Totals: 19 11-17 54.
ROSEBURG (75) — Foster 6, Berry-Cabiao 4, Johnston 2, Campos 13, Wilton 13, Jarvis 0, Piper 8, Filley 11, Fuller 7, Goecke 0, Fallin 11. Totals: 24 18-32 75.
South Medford 14 17 11 12 --54
Roseburg 15 13 26 21 --75
3-point goals — South Medford 5 (Salisbury 4, Stevens 1), Roseburg 2 (Campos 1, Fallin 1). Fouled out — Daugherty. Technical fouls — Roseburg coach, Becker.
JV score — Roseburg 46, South Medford 32.
- GRANTS PASS 34, SOUTH EUGENE 31 — At Grants Pass, senior Breanne Hurst made the most of her last home game, knocking down two late free throws to ice a Southwest Conference victory over South Eugene.
With about 30 seconds to play and the game tied 31-all, the Cavers' Stephanie Pepperling made one of her four steals and was immediately fouled then split her free throws to give GP a one-point advantage.
Hurst hit her two freebees with 6.9 seconds remaining and Natasha Torgerson swatted South Eugene's potential game-tying 3-pointer.
Torgerson led the Cavers (9-13, 4-10 SWC) with 15 points and five rebounds.
SOUTH EUGENE (31) — Woods 2, Densmore 4, Whitfield 4, Barnes 4, Clark 4, Johnston 4, Williams 9, Stinkey 0, Bryan 0. Totals: 11 9-14 31.
GRANTS PASS (34) — Torgerson 15, Chamberlain 6, Randall 5, Hurst 5, Franko 2, Pepperling 1, Loffer 0, Lathen 0, Pittman 0. Totals: 11 11-22 34.
South Eugene 8 6 7 10 --31
Grants Pass 12 8 4 10 --34
3-point goals — Grants Pass 1 (Hurst).
JV score — Grants Pass 47, South Eugene 40.
