Kailee and Central Catholic routs South Medford 57-36 for first title

Central Catholic's Kailee Johnson drives between South Medford in Saturday night's Class 6A final at the Rose Garden. 

Jerry Ulmer, The Oregonian, March 09, 2013 

Central Catholic spent more than a decade trying to reach the pinnacle of Oregon girls basketball, many times falling agonizingly short.

The 6-foot-3 Johnson had 22 points and 12 rebounds as No. 1 Central Catholic ran away from reigning champion South Medford 57-36 in the OSAA Class 6A girls basketball final at the Rose Garden.

After making the semifinals five times in the previous eight seasons, and losing in the 2005 final, the Rams (26-3) finally delivered the first state title for coach Sandy Dickerson.

"It's been a long time coming for her," the Stanford-bound Johnson said. "We probably should've gotten it before in our four years. We were just saving up."

Central Catholic did it the hard way, beating No. 4 Westview in the quarterfinals, No. 3 Oregon City in the semifinals and No. 2 South Medford (24-5) in the final.

"We definitely raised our level when we had to," Johnson said. "This year was so different because we wanted a state championship so bad. There was no other way to do it. We knew we had to come out strong in the big games."

Johnson started to use her long frame to dominate inside, crashing the offensive boards. She scored seven points in the last three minutes of the first quarter.

Johnson continued to do damage inside, adding six points in the third quarter.

"She created all kinds of problems for us," Cole said of Johnson. "She was dominant in the inside. We knew going into this that it was a two-headed monster that drove this group, but the rest of their kids are talented, too."