Winter sports season is wrapping up across Oregon, and spring sports are around the corner. St. Helens High School and Clatskanie Middle/High School have both wrapped up their girls basketball seasons, so let’s take a look at how their seasons shook out.
St. Helens High School
For the Lions, the 2023-2024 season marked the first time in more than 20 years that the girls team has made the playoffs. Head Coach Jillian Ross said she feels “really good” about how her team’s season went.
“Despite placing fourth in the league, we finished with a near .500 record, which is a huge growth from last year. We all grew as individuals, players, and as a team,” Ross said. “This team is the first team to make the State Playoffs in more than 20 years. I think it sets the standard of what we are trying to build here in St. Helens.”
The Lions finished with a record of 12-14 overall, and 5-7 in the Cowapa League. Ross said the Cowapa League is “very tough” and that each game was a “battle” and very competitive. One of the biggest challenges for the program this year was having enough players to put on the floor for the JV and Varsity teams.
“We have a small group to play both JV and varsity, so when girls dealt with injury or sickness, we had to play a numbers game in order to play both games,” Ross said.
Though getting numbers for the games was a challenge sometimes, Ross said that the team’s sophomores provided the scoring punch to keep the Lions competitive. Sophomores Devan Lee and D’aye Davidson lead the team in scoring, averaging 12.3 points per game (ppg) and 11.2 ppg, respectively. Sophomore Madelyn Hancock also had big games for St. Helens throughout the year.
It’s just as well that there is a strong crop of underclassmen stepping up because the program will be losing its five seniors, Maisy McDole, Caitlin Keefe, Makenna Hardin, Katie Duke, and Chloee Claughton. Ross talked about what their contribution has meant to the program.
Our program is losing five seniors after this year, who we will miss tremendously. They have all contributed a ton of time and effort to this program. All of them have contributed to the tremendous growth that we have had in the past two years,” Ross said.
One of the highlights of the season was when the Lions punched their ticket to state. After finishing fourth in the Cowapa League, the Lions had a showdown with North Bend in a play-in game Feb. 24. The Lions emerged victorious, and Ross said that it was a great feeling to finally break the playoff drought.
“We were filled with a ton of excitement following that game,” Ross said. “We had a ton of fan support come out for us on that Saturday, which really contributed to an amazing environment that helped lead us to the win.”
