Senior guard Taylor Young played on state championship teams at South Medford in 2024 and Crater last season. (Crater HS)

With four new starters, it has taken some time for reigning 5A girls basketball champion Crater to settle into a groove this season.

But after three consecutive losses in the second week of the season, the No. 2 Comets (12-3, 3-0 Midwestern League) are starting to gel. Led by Oregon State-bound senior guard Taylor Young, they have outscored opponents by an average margin of 40.4 points in a nine-game winning streak.

“We had a tough week early,” coach Amber Adkisson said of losses to 5A No. 4 South Albany, 6A No. 6 Jesuit and 6A No. 1 Tualatin. “It really challenged me and our kids to ask, 'What do we want to be? What's going to be our identity?'”

In finishing 28-1 last season, Crater averaged 73.1 points per game, often running teams off the court. The Comets still like to push the tempo, but they have throttled down a bit this season, averaging 68.1 points.

“We're just as fast when we want to be, but we might play a little bit more of a half-court game than we do a transition game,” Adkisson said. “The kids have done a really good job the last couple weeks of embracing that. They've shown some real maturity of being patient on offense, not taking the first shot your get, as well as playing good defense without fouling.”

Much of the team's success is built on the 5-foot-8 Young, who is averaging a state-leading 30.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 5.4 steals per game. A key player on South Medford's 6A title team in 2024, she transferred to Crater as a junior and became the 5A player of the year.

“I would say that 95 percent of our possessions that convert into a score, she had something to do with it,” Adkisson said of Young, who is following in the footsteps of her mother (former Crater basketball standout Cherrith Wiersma) to play at Oregon State. “She's such a diverse basketball player.”

Young has dramatically increased her scoring from last season, when she averaged 21 points per game. She opened the season by scoring a school-record 41 points against Bend and has continued to put up points at a torrid pace. Her play has helped compensate for the graduation of guard Sage Winslow, a 5A first-team pick who is Crater's career leader in points and steals.

“Taylor has really stepped up this year,” Adkisson said. “That can take an impact on your body.”

Winslow and 6-4 post Lydia Traore have moved on to college careers at Southern Oregon, and guard Addison Dippel is on the team at George Fox, but the Comets have found ways to make up for their departures.

The addition of 5-7 freshman point guard Brynlee Young, Taylor's sister, has provided a boost. Brynlee Young is second on the team in scoring (12.9) and is averaging 3.8 assists and 4.8 steals.

“She's an outstanding volleyball player, so she has an amazing vertical,” Adkisson said. “She creates a lot of havoc for us on defense. As a freshman point guard, she's done an outstanding job of getting us into our offense and being patient.”

The team's other starters – senior guard Jasmine Fernandez (5-6), sophomore forward Haley Plankenhorn (5-10) and senior post Madison Kitchen (5-10) – were reserves last season. Fernandez is averaging 9.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals. Plankenhorn is the team's top rebounder (6.8) and is averaging 3.0 steals.

Crater lost at South Albany 58-49 on Dec. 9 in a rematch of last year's state final, which the Comets won in overtime. It was Crater's first loss after a 3-0 start that included wins over 4A No. 5 Henley and 4A No. 2 Baker.

“They had a great game plan defensively,” Adkisson said. “I don't think I prepared my team enough to be ready for that game. Mentally, we weren't ready to go. We didn't respond.”

After that, Crater dropped home games to Jesuit 66-61 and Tualatin 55-41 on back-to-back days. The Comets reveled in the opportunity to play reigning 6A champion Tualatin, led by sophomore point guard Love Lei Best.

“That was great for my girls to be able to play against them, to be able to say, 'I played against Love Best,'” Adkisson said. “We hung around.”

Crater's winning streak includes two wins over 4A No. 3 Philomath, 76-52 and 61-46. The Comets' next big challenge appears to be a Midwestern League showdown Jan. 30 at No. 1 Springfield (13-1, 2-0).