Gritty, tough Lady Rangers hope defense delivers district title

“What we are going to do is get you doing things that you don’t want to do,” Morris said. “We are going to wear you down, beat you down and nobody is going to want to play us. These girls are really buying into that style of play. We want these girls to lay it out there and give everything they got on the court.”

The Rangers roster is still young, with Abby Beal, Brooke Beachamp, Piper Neal, Jadyn Fargher, Emily Crawford, and Hannah Kortge as the six sophomores. Zoe Hester, Kierstin White and second-team all-league point guard, Jessica Brown, are the three returning juniors.

The five seniors are Reghan Smith, Katie Beal, Mikayla Kelly, Maddy Smith and Mona Meanus.

“This team has a lot of variety,” Brown said. “We have good post players and a lot of fast girls. Right now, offensively, we want to be up-tempo. We have the depth this year. To have the athletes we have, we can mix and match spots. We can use our versatile players to attack other teams.”

In 2018-2019 under coach Hollie Darden, Dufur started out 0-9, but went 10-4 the rest of the way to chalk up a district playoff berth, where they lost to South Wasco County and Ione.

Morris, who is joined by assistants Tony White and Heather Walters, said that he has not focused on offense yet; he is hammering home the message of defense and being an in-your-face terror for 32 minutes.

One thing for sure, though; the Lady Rangers need to improve on their 34.5-points-per-game average.

“We haven’t worked on offense at all. I mean almost not at all,” Morris said. “We knew coming in that our identity is what we are able to do defensively. We have some other wrinkles that we will thrown in. Really, it is just a building process and fine-tuning what we already do defensively, and we will find our flow offensively. These girls are having fun and they are going to be putting in a lot of work with their shooting, and they will eventually have their shots fall. It is going to be a fun season.”

Down low, the Rangers have some height with Kelly (5-11), White (5-10), Beachamp (5-9) and Fargher (5-8), and Brown is 5-7.

“We need to get some stops and some rebounds, and once we get into the open court, we need to take care of the ball,” Beachamp said. “This is a good team. We really play well together. There is no negative energy out there. Everything is positive. So far, everything has looked pretty good.”

League play is where Dufur will cut its teeth because there are a handful of 1A teams that can play at an elite level every night. The Rangers showed a competitive edge last year by going 9-1 in their final 10 league tilts.

Highlighted by two-time district champion South Wasco County, Sherman, Ione-Arlington, Condon-Wheeler, Echo and Mitchell-Spray, no game is easy, and Morris knows his squad will need to be prepared mentally and physically for an intense battle.

Once the dust settles, the four teams that can win the most, extend their season.

Brown is hopeful that Dufur could be one of those select few.

“I think our league is strong again,” Brown said. “Some teams lost players and others are young, but is still going to be tough, so if we don’t bring our game, we are going to get beat. We are fighting for just a couple of spots, so we need to be ready to play hard every night.”

No. 14-ranked Dufur hosts Heppner at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and then has back-to-back road dates at McKenzie (5:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 20) and Crow (noon on Saturday, Dec. 21).