COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. — Junior guard Alexandria Farrald finished with 19 points, and the Junction City Tigers (8–15, 4–6 4A) delivered on a 56–31 upset win over the Cottage Grove Lions (12–10, 4–6 4A) on the road Tuesday evening.
It doesn’t have to be considered an upset, as Junction City has won the last two matchups against the Lions after beating the Lions at home 48–26 back in January.
“It’s a great group of kids, and if we played as we practiced every day, we’d be contending for the league title.” Junction City head coach Mike Campbell said. “We got through those nerves early. I had to call a couple of quick timeouts because that’s what happens if we get started down on the road. But they compete; we don’t always get it done, but we compete. This is a big win for our team.”
Senior forward Aspen Gambee scored 10, and senior guard Riley Plumlee added on eight more for the Tigers as they wrapped up their four-game road trip, compiling a 2–2 record during the stretch.
“We got a real tough one Friday night with Marist, and then we’ve got Marshfield to conclude the season, who we’ve handled a couple times,” Campbell said. “If we get one of those two done, we’ll end up in third. For our group, the way we’ve started out struggling is a state title win in my mind.”
Senior guard Mariah Bailey led Cottage Grove in scoring with 15 points, and senior forward Makya Alsup added nine more to the total, but the effort was not enough to keep the Lions in the game.
“Again, it was defense.” Cottage Grove head coach Kim Beer said. “We were letting them drive, cutting across our face, and everything we planned to try and do, we didn’t do it.”
Junction City returns home on Friday to face the Marist Catholic Spartans (14–5), who look to get back on track after having the four-game losing streak snapped at Seaside on Friday.
“[Marist] is a little tough,” Campbell said. “They go about nine deep as good as anybody in the state. So we just have to hope this confidence will carry us and try to steal from somebody ranked higher than us.”
The Lions wrap up their two-game homestand on Thursday against the North Bend Bulldogs (18–4), who they nearly pulled off an upset against on the road.
“We’ll probably play a different defense on North Bend than we did tonight.” Beer said. “There wasn’t a lot that we learned from tonight going into that game. We’ll have to go by what we learned when playing North Bend last.”
What’s Next:
Junction City: vs. Marist Catholic Friday 2/20
Cottage Grove: vs. North Bend Thursday 2/19