After going 4-55 in the 6A Pacific Conference the last five years, Century's girls basketball team had modest goals this season under first-year coach Eddie Littlefield.
“They wanted to win a league game,” Littlefield said. “I'm like, 'I want to compete for the league title.' They just laughed at me, like belly-laughed.”
Two games into the Pacific schedule, Century contending for the conference crown doesn't seem so comical. The Jaguars followed a 64-57 home win over Forest Grove in the Pacific opener last week with a 54-45 overtime win at reigning conference co-champion Sherwood on Tuesday night.
Century now stands 12-2 overall, 2-0 in the conference, bearing little resemblance to the team that finished 6-18, 0-12 last season.
“Winning those two games, that's all the difference,” Littlefield said. “Now they think they can play with anybody. We're turning it around. I'm not saying we're winning anything major yet, but we're playing good basketball now.”
At the center of the resurgence is the addition of Kiara Green, a 6-foot-5 junior center who transferred from 5A Hillsboro, and the return of junior point guard Mia Brownson, who stood out as a freshman but missed her sophomore year with a torn ACL.
Green is averaging 15.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game and the 5-6 Brownson is putting up 12.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists. Green setting a ball screen for Brownson is the team's go-to play on offense.
“Those two have the next two years to work with each other,” Littlefield said. “They're going to be a dynamic duo. You've got a point guard that can get to the rim and you've got a big that can roll and create space, and lay a lot of stuff in. And we space the floor with three-point shooters because you've got to honor Kiara.”
The players feed off of the attention drawn by Green, who is being recruited by several Division I college programs.
“If Kiara goes down, we're a different team,” Littlefield said. “She commands a double everywhere. On defense, every time someone comes into the middle, they stop and pass it out.”
The Jaguars are getting steady play from their other starters: senior shooting guard Kami Carmean (14.0 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.0 steals) and senior forwards Alyssa Loza (9.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 steals) and Olivia Irvin (6.9 points, 6.1 rebounds).
Sophomore guard Taysha Powell, sophomore wing Claire Keenan and freshman guard Symphony Lawson – who moved into the district from Chicago – are providing plenty of energy off the bench.
Littlefield, who spent the last two seasons running the defense for Lincoln's boys team under coach Heather Seely Roberts, has applied to same principles to Century in his first head coaching job. The Jaguars apply constant pressure in an effort to wear down opponents by the end of the game.
“We're a fourth-quarter team,” Littlefield said. “We don't even care about the first and second quarter, because we press. It's all about the third and fourth quarter. We try to make our runs there.”
The strategy has reaped dividends of late as Century has come from behind in the fourth quarter to win its last three games, defeating 6A McNary 65-60 before taking down Forest Grove and Sherwood.
Littlefield said that beating Forest Grove is the team's biggest win of the season.
“Everything we've done in forever, they've just killed us,” he said. “We couldn't beat them. For us to get a home league win against a rival was probably the game that defined us, because now all of the sudden the girls believe.”
Against Sherwood, Brownson hit a game-tying three-pointer in the final 10 seconds of regulation and the Jaguars dominated overtime. Loza had 20 points to lead the way.
Century lost to 5A No. 1 Crater 69-33 and 5A Eagle Point 56-43 in back-to-back games at a tournament in Corvallis during the holiday break. But the Jaguars were missing seven players, including Carmean and Irvin, due to holiday commitments.
Littlefield has coached for more than two decades, spending much of that time assisting the Forest Grove boys, where his sons – Drake and Guy – played on the team. He sought a girls head coaching job, and after landing at Century, he brought Drake and Guy aboard as assistants.
“This has been my dream,” he said. “It's been fun. I stepped into a really good situation.”
Willamette tops South Medford
Senior wing Izzie Harms made five three-pointers and scored 18 points as No. 4 Willamette defeated No. 5 South Medford 56-48 in a 6A Southwest Conference showdown Friday.
The host Wolverines (12-5, 4-0) opened a 36-21 halftime lead behind Harms, who scored all of her points in the first half. The reigning state champion Panthers (13-3, 3-1) got to within 42-36 after three quarters, but Willamette put the game away at the foul line, making nine free throws in the fourth quarter.
It was an emotional victory for Willamette, which dropped all three meetings with South Medford last season, the last one in the state semifinals.
"I don't know that it sends necessarily any message," Willamette head coach Chad Carpenter told the Register-Guard. "We've played a really tough schedule. We've got a good basketball team, and I think it's going to pay dividends down the road.”
Senior Brynn Smith added 17 points for Willamette. Juniors Mayen Akpan and Dyllyn Howell scored 19 and 16 points, respectively, to lead the Panthers.
Undefeated Stayton gets key win
No. 1 Stayton remained unbeaten with a 41-28 win at No. 4 Cascade in the 4A Oregon West Conference opener for both teams Tuesday.
The Eagles (15-0) took control of the game with a 12-0 run to start the second quarter, opening a 21-7 lead. Stayton led the Cougars (9-4) by double digits for most of the game.
“We haven’t won here in a while, and that was our motivation, we really wanted to beat Cascade,” Stayton sophomore Kathryn Samek said. “We’ve been practicing our defense. We’re getting one percent better every day and working as a family, so it was really great for us.”
Samek and senior Kenzi Hollenbeck led Stayton with 19 and 16 points, respectively.
Before the game, Cascade paid tribute to its former coach, Mark Stevens, by naming the court after him. In 32 seasons (1990-2022), Stevens guided the Cougars to seven state finals, winning in 2011. He is No. 3 on the state's all-time wins list with a record of 583-223.
-- Jeremy McDonald contributed to this report
jerryu@osaa.org
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