Tigers stop Spartans' streak.

Byline: Paula Lincoln The Register-Guard

Marist's winning streak is over.

After winning 109 consecutive Sky-Em League girls basketball games over eight years, the Spartans were knocked off in their own gym when Junction City's Christie Richards hit a 19-footer as time ran out to give the Tigers a hard-fought 35-34 victory over the Spartans on Friday night.

"I was just praying it would go in and it did," said Richards, who was the game's high scorer with 10 points. "We wanted it so bad. We wanted more than anything to beat them, and it was a perfect night and a perfect place."

"It's been eight years and I've told my kids every year, `We were the last team to beat them and I think we should be the first team to do it again,' ' said Junction City coach Craig Lannom, whose Tigers last beat Marist on Feb. 19, 1996.

Of course, that was the season Junction City beat Marist twice during the regular season, lost a seeding game to the Spartans and then were beaten by Marist in the state championship game.

So is first-year Marist coach Makana Apo - who inherited the streak from former coach Terry Lande's teams - relieved to have the monkey off his back? Or is a loss a loss?

"It depends on who you are and how you look at it," Apo said. "You can look at it from the standpoint that it doesn't do us any good in the win-loss column, but there's been so much external pressure on the kids. Now we can start talking about something else."

Richards, a 5-foot-6 sophomore guard, launched her shot after taking a pass from junior McKenzie Gambee, who had dribbled half the length of the court after taking the inbounds pass with seven seconds left in the game and the Tigers trailing 34-33.

"We didn't know which side we'd end up on, so I told them if they had a good look at the basket, shoot it. If not, just pitch it and hope for the best," said Lannom, whose team's win forged a three-way tie for first (5-1) involving Junction City, Marist and Pleasant Hill.

Richards' shot brought about the seventh lead change in the final period and the fourth in the final minute.

Junction City had gone ahead 33-32 with 16 seconds to play after sophomore Jamie Burg scored on an inbounds play off a pass from Gambee. She was fouled, but missed the free throw and Sarah Long rebounded for Marist.

Jessie Moore took the outlet pass from Long and dribbled the length of the floor for a layup with eight seconds left that gave the Spartans their final lead.

The final-minute offensive flurry came after a 2 1/2 -minute span during which neither team was able to score.

Lori Renner made two free throws to tie the game at 29-29 with 3:01 remaining, and the Spartans didn't score again until Moore's three-point play with 30 seconds left gave Marist a 32-31 lead.

Junction City went scoreless for 1:57 after Richards' putback made it 31-29 with 2:13 remaining.

Both teams played tough man-to-man defenses throughout the game. Junction City shot 39.5 percent from the field and Marist finished at 35.3 percent.

"I think our defense kept us in the game," said Lannom, whose team was outrebounded 24-9 in the first half but forced 17 Marist turnovers.

"I was pleased with our (man-to-man) defensive effort," said Apo, whose Spartans usually play a match-up zone. "It's not too often we'll do that, but circumstances dictated it."

Pleasant Hill 30,

Cottage Grove 25

COTTAGE GROVE - Samantha Franklin scored 11 points as the Billies (13-3, 5-1 league) knocked the Lions out of a share of second place.

Brittney Evans had seven points for the Lions (8-8, 4-2).

Siuslaw 51, Elmira 39

FLORENCE - Kristi Harline and Miranda Little scored 12 points apiece to lead the Vikings.

Whitney Dragt had 12 points and Alicia Cook added 11 for the Falcons, who trailed 26-11 at halftime.

La Pine 55, Creswell 15

LA PINE - Bobbie Teernstra had 14 points to lead the Hawks, followed by Tara Gardner with 13 and Erika Pajunen with 10.

La Pine broke the game open with a 43-9 second-half edge. Jayme Harrold scored five points for the Bulldogs.