Taylor Young extends Oregon 5A senior record as Crater places 4th
Published 8:33 pm Saturday, March 14, 2026
Comets senior standout finishes 11 points shy of top senior season in state history with 840 points in 2025-26
Charged up and ready to put another girls basketball state trophy in the case, fourth-seeded Crater made quick work of No. 7 Crook County during the fourth-place final of the Class 5A state championships in McMinnville.
It took senior standout Taylor Young all of six seconds to make her mark against the Cowgirls, turning an opening steal into a layup, and the Comets never looked back in a 65-44 runaway victory at Linfield University.
Young scored eight of her game-high 25 points in the opening quarter to help propel Crater (23-5) to a 15-4 lead, which included a frenetic defensive effort that left Crook County wanting with a 1-for-10 start from the field.
Senior Jazmine Fernandez added 14 points and five rebounds, freshman Brynlee Young contributed 13 points, four assists and four steals and sophomore Haley Plankenhorn pulled in 12 rebounds to go with seven points, three steals and two assists.
Madison Kitchen also grabbed five rebounds for the Comets, who built a 31-15 advantage by halftime and were never seriously threatened.
“The girls came out ready to go today,” said Crater head coach Amber Adkisson, who has led the Comets to a state trophy in each of her first two seasons. “They were excited and just came out with some grit to get the win this morning.”
McKinley Sloper supplied 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Leila Acuff scored 14 points to lead Crook County (19-9).
After pushing through a survival mode win in Friday’s consolation semifinals against Silverton, Crater looked every bit the part of a team that entered the state tournament with hopes to repeat as 5A champion and weren’t that far off in the Comets’ 69-62 quarterfinal loss to West Albany.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs went on to claim the 5A title Saturday night with a 51-48 win over No. 2 Springfield, which split with the Comets this season.
Young exemplified that as much as any other, going an efficient 9-for-17 from the field and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line to break her own 5A state tournament record for overall points by four with 90 over three games. She also swiped six steals to go with eight rebounds and three assists.
The 5-foot-8 guard also set a scoring record for senior girls basketball players at the 5A level with 840 points in her final campaign before joining the Oregon State program. That total is second-only to Gaston’s Sheri Van Loo in state history among all classifications, with Van Loo posting 851 at the 2A level in 1980.
That 840-point total extended her own single-season scoring record at Crater, among a host of records for someone who played in the Class 6A state championship final in each of her first two seasons at South Medford and in the 5A final last year with the Comets. She finished with two state titles, one runner-up showing and Saturday’s fourth-place trophy.
During her four-year run, Young amassed 2,229 career points to move into the top-10 scorers in Oregon history. Only 24 girls basketball players statewide had reached the 2,000-point plateau entering the 2025-26 campaign, topped by Triangle Lake’s Kiana Brown (1A record 2,894) and Jazzy Davidson (6A record 2,726) of Clackamas.
With a combined 17 steals this weekend, Young upped her career totals to 483, which would be good for ninth overall in Oregon history. She also increased her career tally in assists to 332 after averaging three per game in McMinnville.
Crook County 4 11 15 14 — 44
Crater 15 16 19 15 — 65
Reach sports editor Kris Henry at kris.henry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035