By Craig Murphy

Springfield Times Editor

EUGENE – The Springfield girls knew not much was riding on last Friday's Midwestern League basketball tournament game at Willamette.

The Millers played as such.

A week after knocking off 5A No. 2 Thurston to clinch a state playoff berth, the Millers played sloppy from the start against the Wolverines. By the end, the Millers turned the ball over 25 times in an ugly 53-35 loss.

The only bright side of the night: Springfield has the No. 2 seed, and will play at Crater this Friday evening.

"We were thinking too much about upcoming games to play hard," a disappointed Mercedes Russell said. "No one was on the right track."

That was evident from the start. Russell scored on a rebound to make it 2-0, but Willamette responded with an 8-0 run. By the end of the first period, the Wolverines had already built a 15-5 lead.

Things didn't get much better in the second frame, as the Millers continued to have problems holding onto the ball. Willamette led 29-11 at half, with the Millers recording more turnovers (15) than points in the first half.

"Willamette came out and played a great game," SHS coach Chuck Wenger said. "I knew they would come out aggressive. They have a great young team. We had too many unforced turnovers, and their No. 22 (Alyssa Worthen) killed us with five threes. That broke our backs."

Many of the turnovers came when the Millers tried to feed the ball to Russell in the post. Russell led the Millers with 12 points on the night.

"They were just one step ahead," Russell lamented. "I was being double, triple teamed. They had no done that as much before to us."

The Millers (11-10) will now play at Crater (20-7) at 7 p.m. Friday.

For more on this and other news from around the Springfield area, be sure to pick up a copy of the March 5 issue of Springfield Times, available at news racks and stores all around the area. Look under the 'Newspaper Locations' link on this site to find out where. To subscribe to the paper, call 741-7368 or stop by 741 Main St.