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Sports update: Benson, Grant girls basketball teams headline inaugural PIL Holiday Classic
12/7/2017The Portland Interscholastic League’s two powerhouse girls basketball teams will be featured in a new holiday tournament that will be played in the sparkling new Franklin High School gym. Benson and Grant, which shared the PIL title last season and figure to be among the state’s top teams, will be in the eight-team varsity field of the PIL Holiday Classic that will be played Dec. 21-23 at Franklin.
On the opening day, Benson, which started the season Dec. 1 with a marquee win, 61-44 at Jesuit, will take on South Medford at 5:15 p.m. South Medford is the dominant team in Southern Oregon and has not lost a Southwest Conference game since the league was formed in 2014-15.
Grant will take on Sheldon at 1:30 p.m. The Generals’ co-championship was their third PIL title in a row, having gone 47-1 in league since the league was reformed in 2014-15. Sheldon has been the top team in Eugene for years and is a perennial challenger to South Medford in the Southwest.
Also in the field are Tigard, the two-time defending champion of the Three Rivers League; Forest Grove, a state playoff regular from the Greater Valley Conference; Camas, a perennial power from Southwest Washington; and Kentridge from Seattle; another Washington contender.
All teams will play three games in three days, with the finalists playing for the championship at 7 p.m. on Dec. 23. The event will also serve as a showcase for the Franklin gym, which opened with the rest of the rebuilt campus this year and is being touted by PIL officials as one of the state’s best.
The event will include eight junior varsity and eight freshman teams in separate tournaments. Plans call for the tournament to expand to 24 varsity teams, and 48 teams overall, in 2018-19.
All-State: The PIL was well represented in the Class 6A All-State teams for soccer and volleyball as selected by coaches via ballot through The Oregonian/OregonLive. Here are the athletes who were honored:
GIRLS SOCCER
First team
Ella Burke, Cleveland, senior
Second team
Julia Downing, Cleveland, senior
Naomi Meyer, Grant, senior
Natalie Swope, Lincoln, senior
GK: Molly Cohen, Wilson, seniorBOYS SOCCER
First team
Alex Mejia, Madison, senior
Henry Temple, Lincoln, senior
Second team
Philip Quinton, Grant, senior
Lincoln Schell, Grant, senior
Hayden Smith, Wilson, senior
GK: Eli Roberts, Grant, seniorVOLLEYBALL
Second team
Kylie Ristvedt, Cleveland, senior
Libby Lazzara, Lincoln, senior
Honorable mention
Ella Ristvedt, Cleveland, senior(See: Complete teams for All-State soccer and volleyball)
-Mike Tokito
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