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Strength in numbers: Deep Forest Grove squad surpasses win total from last season amid perfect start

  • Nishadil
  • January 09, 2024
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Strength in numbers: Deep Forest Grove squad surpasses win total from last season amid perfect start

In his 15 years as head man at Forest Grove, girls basketball coach Dan Lumpkin’s best teams have typically thrived off their depth. So it should come as no surprise that this year’s Vikings, undefeated at 12 0 and off to their best start, record wise, in at least a decade, are finding success through a strength in numbers approach.

“A lot of our more successful teams had quite a bit of balance and didn’t have to rely on one or two players,” Lumpkin said. “I feel that this year’s group typifies that.” The Vikings, ranked No. 4 in Class 6A according to the OSAA computers, have already blown past their win total from a season ago (10), despite losing eight seniors, including a trio of two year starters in Grace Burke, Myle Vernon, and Summer Hullinger.

Four players — senior guards Lauren Buchanan and Emma Emerson, sophomore forward Cali Davis, and freshman guard Savannah Dahl — are averaging around double digits in scoring, and Lumpkin estimates they have had at least five different leading scorers through their first dozen games. Buchanan, Emerson and Davis are joined by junior guard Iya Lin Betteridge and Matea Vernon in the starting lineup.

Dahl and senior guard Katelyn Petersen, among others, have directed a formidable group of backups. “When you have the starting five on the floor,” said Buchanan, “and then you have the next five or six girls that come in, really there’s no dip… And I think that’s been really hard for teams to react to.” The multitude of contributors has helped the Vikings stay fresh while better controlling the pace on both ends, which was a focus for the team entering this season.

Both Lumpkin and Buchanan agree the team’s 54 42 win over South Albany (8 2, No. 2 in 5A) was a turning point, helping realize the Vikings’ potential. “Going in we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna give it our all,’” Buchanan said, “and then it’s halftime and we’re hanging with them.

We’re just like, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ That’s where I kind of was like, I see something really special with this group of girls. I see us going really far. Farther than we have in the past.” Ahead of the season, the Vikings staked claim to their goal of competing for a Pacific Conference title.

The coaching staff, said Lumpkin, didn’t want to etch specifics into the mind of the girls, and birth the aspiration to finish atop the league, or even second or third, necessarily. They just wanted to be in the race. Here, on the eve of their first conference game, a 7:15 p.m. tip at Sherwood High School Tuesday night, the Vikings have proved they have all the potential to be right in the thick of things.

“I think we have a team that absolutely can compete for a league title,” Lumpkin said, “but it’s also going to take our best effort to make that happen.” McMinnville (10 2, No. 7) and Glencoe (10 2, No. 12) both join Forest Grove in the state’s early season upper echelon, and should set the scene for a hotly contested battle for the Pacific Conference into late February.

Aiding in the Vikings’ chances, perhaps unexpectedly so, is their immense turnover. It’s a fresh group, yet one which has gelled quickly, presenting an entirely new look this season. “The beauty of our league is that the girls on the other teams didn’t really graduate a lot of seniors,” said Buchanan, “and so we kind of know exactly how they’re going to play and what to expect.

But for us, we’re such a new group, and I think we’re going to be able to use that to our advantage… I think we have some weapons that teams aren’t really expecting.” The swiftness in which a relatively new Vikings group was able to build cohesion this season came as a slight surprise, said Lumpkin.

“We have great leadership,” he said. “We have a lot of kids that have been in the program for several years and girls that have grown up playing together, so there’s already been a level of camaraderie.” The Vikings aren’t the most experienced. Nor are they the tallest; Lumpkin said he still wants to see more fight on the boards.

But at the halfway point of the season, Forest Grove just keeps winning. “Our goals have remained the same,” said Buchanan, adding: “We’re ready for the challenge.”.