Oregon State Championship 16-7 Final

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Oregon State Championship 16-7 Final

Postby Flip » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:01 pm

http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/ ... tics-fail/


EUGENE -- If anyone was looking for an argument for the implementation of a shot clock in high school basketball, Saturday night's Class 5A girls championship final was one.

The Springfield Millers endured Willamette's extreme slow-down tactics and clinched their second consecutive state championship with a bizarre 16-7 victory over their 5A Midwestern rivals at Matthew Knight Arena.

Springfield led 4-0 at the end of the first half, 7-1 at the end of the third quarter, and never came close to letting Willamette into the game down the stretch of the lowest scoring championship final in the history of Oregon high school basketball at any level.

"We don't care how we did it, we just won it," Millers coach Bill Wagner said. "They did what they felt they needed to do and our kids had great composure with that.

"I'm so proud of this group. Like I said, I don't care how we got it done, we got it."

In his attempt to neutralize Mercedes Russell, Springfield's 6-foot-6 junior post, Willamette coach Paul Brothers, the former Oregon State quarterback, perhaps harkened back to the time when Pacific-8 Conference rivals held the ball against powerhouse UCLA in the pre-shot clock era -- frustrating the Bruins center then known as Lew Alcindor and fans alike.

How extreme was it Saturday? After Russell hit a bank shot to close out the first quarter and give the Millers a 4-0 lead, the Wolverines of Eugene took the ball to start the second quarter and held it -- literally stood and held it -- until they turned it over with six seconds to play in the half.

"We've tried going toe-to-toe with them and that doesn't work," Brothers said. "Russell is just far superior to probably just about anybody around, so we felt like we had to limit her touches.

"I don't like to play that kind of game, but I like to give our kids the best chance to win. We felt if we could keep the score down in the first half and then come out and hit some shots in the second half that maybe we'd be in it."

The Millers were surprised not only by Willamette's game plan, but also with the Wolverines' gumption to stick with it.

"It was weird," Millers guard Alisen Hinton said. "But it was a game that we had to be mentally strong for, and we were."

The Wolverines managed to keep it a two-possession game heading into the fourth quarter, but so much standing around also took a toll on their shooters. Their first basket -- a three-pointer by Brittany Glassow -- came with 5:38 to play and they shot 14.3 percent (2 for 14) for the game.

"They'd beaten us and they beat everybody else in our league, so we had to try to do something different," Brothers said. "Obviously, they're the best team. They beat us three times this year, so more power to them."

Russell scored five of her game-high seven points in the fourth quarter for the Millers, who shot 33.3 percent (3 for 9) from the field and 56.3 percent (9 for 16) at the free-throw line.
Flip
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