South Medford returns with new cast to take another shot at 6A girls basketball title

Kim Ceron-Romero, a Menlo College commit, has 19 points and four steals in Thursday’s OSAA quarterfinal win over Southridge

The South Medford girls showed Thursday afternoon why this might be the year they end a 12-year title drought. 

The top-seeded Panthers dismantled Southridge 56-24 in the quarterfinals of the OSAA Class 6A basketball tournament at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center, holding the Metro League tri-champions to 21% shooting and forcing 23 turnovers.

“We just played great team basketball today, and we got it done,” said senior Kim Ceron-Romero, who shared team-high scoring honors with 19 points to go with four steals and four rebounds. 

“It’s just all about effort. Any time we go out there with effort and compete really hard, I think really great things can happen.” 

The Panthers (24-3) won their 20th in a row since a mid-December loss at Benson — part of a grueling nonconference schedule that coach Tom Cole believes hardened his young team led by Ceron-Romero, a Menlo College commit, and including seven sophomores and a freshman.

“We had no (home games) during the preseason, and part of that is to prepare for this,” Cole said. “You have to learn how to adjust to living in a hotel, not sleeping in your own bed, eating whatever the buffet food is at the hotel, getting up and resting at night and having some discipline to recognize that you’re here for basketball.”

Since Cole led the program to its only state championship in 2012, the Panthers have reached the final three times — 2013, 2014 and last year, when led by Donovyn Hunter (now starring at Oregon State) and Tatum Schmerbach (recently named Cascade Conference freshman of the year at Oregon Tech), they fell to Clackamas 56-46.

Ceron-Romero is one of the few returning players from that game and said she is impressed with how “we’ve been able to rebuild. I think a lot of people kind of counted us out this year, considering we lost a lot. 

“So, just being able to come out here and show everyone that we’re still relevant and going to fight to the end, it’s just been really cool.”

Ceron-Romero also praised the development of the Panthers’ sophomore class, including 6-foot-3 post Mayen Akpan, who had 19 points and 18 rebounds Thursday — 12 on the offensive end. 

“They’re young, but they’ve grown a lot maturity-wise, and they’re just going to keep getting better, which will be fun to watch,” she said. “The last couple of games, Mayen has taken on some pretty big assignments. The last game, she had a tough matchup with Ava (Sherwood’s Ava Heiden, an Iowa commit), so just having another person that loves the physicality is really vital to our success.” 

Cole added, “Mayen has physically developed and is becoming much more confident in her athleticism, and it showed today. She is becoming a very dominant force in Oregon girls basketball.”

Another of the sophomores who drew high marks from Cole on Thursday is wing Taylor Young, whom he credited with slowing down Skyhawks sharpshooter Sara Mangan (eight points on 3-of-15 shooting, including 2 of 10 from 3-point range).

“Taylor did a tremendous job of really holding her down,” Cole said. “She may not have filled up the stat sheet (seven points), but her defensive tenacity helped to disrupt a lot of what their rhythm might have been.”

Southridge (22-5) also has plenty of tournament pedigree (seven titles and eight championship game appearances) but was making its first trip to the Chiles Center since the COVID-shortened 2020 season. 

The Panthers jumped all over the Skyhawks early, going on a 15-0 run over a seven-minute stretch to build a 20-3 lead with 6½ minutes left in the first half.

The lead grew to 33-9 by halftime, and early in the fourth quarter, Akpan’s short jumper triggered the running clock at 50-20.

“We didn’t get the best game from all our kids, but I think collectively, they really played off one another’s success,” Cole said. “I was really proud of the way they competed. They came out and took some big steps.”

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Photos by Dan Brood