CRESWELL – The Creswell girls put a nice finishing touch on a great evening for coach Tyler Hollingsworth, as he achieved something he’s never done in his tenure as head basketball coach.
“We haven’t had both teams go (to the Coast for the state tournament) in my nine years here,” Hollingsworth said after the Bulldogs’ 61-42 victory over Jefferson on Saturday night. “In the last five years, we’ve taken turns – we go, then they go, then we go – but this is the first time we’ve had the boys and girls both making it.”
Creswell faces Sisters – a team it knows well – in Thursday’s quarterfinals at 3:15 p.m. at Marshfield High School. Both teams lost at home during their regular-season matchups.
“The first game we were up for about three-quarters of the game and we lost it down the stretch,” Hollingsworth said. “The second game we pressured them a lot and wore them down and won by 18.”
On Saturday, Creswell (20-6) got balanced scoring from Elliette Kinney (20 points), Kylie Leonard (19), and Mila Nguyen (15). Jefferson (17-9) was led by Aliya Saad and Luella Campbell, who scored 13 points apiece.
Jefferson dressed only seven players, which is normally a recipe for disaster against a full-court pressing team like Creswell. To the Lions’ credit, though, they made the game competitive, and trailed just 48-34 entering the fourth quarter.
Two buckets by Leonard, the last coming at the midway point of the period, made it 56-38, and it was all over but the cutting down of the nets for the winners.
Hollingsworth said he likes the pieces he has to work with when trying to coach this team.
“If you have girls who can drive, girls who can shoot and girls who play super hard, you can mess up on communication when you’re flying around on defense,” Hollingsworth said. “It wasn’t perfect today – but that’s what I like about this group – that it can do a little bit of everything. Tonight, we had Mila, Kylie, and Elliette all having good scoring games from different positions. That makes it really hard to guard.”
Sisters, Creswell, and Pleasant Hill are all representing the Mountain Valley Conference at state this year.
Seventh-seeded Pleasant Hill (18-9) defeated No. 10 Coquille 40-31, earning a quarterfinal matchup against No. 2-seeded Amity (25-2) on Thursday at 8:15 p.m.
Pleasant Hill and Creswell both lost in the second round of the playoffs last year. No. 1-seeded Amity won the state title, topping No. 2 Banks 43-41.
