BEAVERTON — Competition.

The Jesuit girls basketball players say they love it. The Crusaders might even thrive on it.

Friday, Jesuit looked some big-time competition right in the face. And, although it certainly wasn’t easy, the Crusaders thrived.

In a battle of two of the four teams in the midst of furious competition for the Metro League title, Jesuit overcame Mountainside to get a hard-fought 44-37 win over the Mavericks in a crucial league contest at Mountainside High School.

“It went great. We played really hard,” Jesuit senior guard Audrey Bayless said. “Congratulations to the other team, as well. They fought hard. It came down to competition at the end, and we made some great plays. We played hard on defense, and we competed all the way through. I was super proud of all of us.”

“We knew it would be a hard game from the start, but we came in, executed, and we went out and fought,” said Jesuit junior guard Amani Lubrano, who led a balanced Crusaders scoring attack with 12 points and had three steals. “That was the biggest difference tonight.”

“I thought we did what we needed to do, and it was just about execution,” said Jesuit junior wing Reese Filkins, who shined on defense in addition to sinking two key third-quarter 3-point baskets. “We needed to be locked in on personnel. They’ve got some great athletes. It’s a fight. You can make or miss baskets, but for us, it’s winning every little battle on the court.”

Jesuit improved to 5-2 in Metro League play (11-9 overall), putting the Crusaders in a tie with Beaverton for second place in the league standings. Southridge sits alone in first place at 6-1, while Mountainside moved to fourth place at 4-3 (13-7 overall), with each team having three league games to play.

Jesuit next will be in action Feb. 21 when it plays host to Westview (0-7 in Metro play) before finishing its league slate with huge games at Southridge on Feb. 25 and at home against Beaverton on Feb. 28.

If the Crusaders win out, they will finish in no worse than a tie for the Metro League championship — although it sounds like they want the title all to themselves.

“That would mean everything,” Bayless said of winning the Metro crown. “That’s the goal, obviously. It would be so fun to win that as a team — win it together. Yeah, that would be awesome.”

“It means everything. It’s what we’re working for every day,” Filkins said. “We always talk about it. Metro is such a different game than preseason, or whatever, so it’s a lot more personal and fun.”

Winning the league title would be even more rewarding this season, as there are four strong teams battling for it.

“Wow, it’s been competitive this year,” Lubrano said. “There’s a lot of good teams, and every game counts. It’s just been really fun for us this year.”

“It honestly makes it so much more fun because we all are fighting for it. We love the competition,” Filkins said. “We’ve known all of these girls forever. It’s just about creating the best environment to put us in the best situation to win.”

“It will be a fun fight for Metro,” Bayless said. “It’s so fun — I love it. My freshman year, it was a little bit like this, but it was just us and Beaverton. But now, having multiple teams, it’s just fun to compete for this. That’s what it’s all about.”

If Jesuit is to win the Metro League title, it will do so with a different look from last season’s team that made the Class 6A state tournament at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center. Last season’s Crusaders squad depended a lot on since-graduated post player Kendra Hicks, who was a double-double machine and was named the Metro League player of the year in addition to earning Class 6A first-team all-state honors.

“We lost our post from last year, Kendra Hicks, but we return four starting guards who went to the Chiles Center last year,” Bayless said. “We all bonded together, filled in the gaps, and we’ve got our new freshman, CC (6-foot-4 post Ceanna Forney), and she’s fitting in super well. I think we’ve all bonded and have played together well.”

“We lost Kendra Hicks, and she was a big part of our offense, our rebounding. She contributed a lot, so we had to adjust a lot to fill in her role,” Lubrano said. “We’ve got CC, our 6-4 post. She’s a freshman, but she’s really stepped up to the role. We’re fitting in what we can, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”

While Forney has stepped up for Jesuit, there’s been another key to the Crusaders’ success this season — defense.

“That’s really what we work on because we know that’s a controllable factor,” Filkins said. “For us, that’s what carries on to our offense.”

Defense was a key factor in Friday’s win at Mountainside. The Crusaders helped force the Mavericks into a 15-for-43 shooting night from the field (34.8 percent) and 18 turnovers.

“It was great,” Bayless said of Jesuit’s defensive effort. “We all played together, and we played hard. That’s what’s important. We value ourselves on our defense, and defense wins games.”

Bayless, Filkins, Lubrano, junior Sophia Costarella and junior Lauren Reding provided the swarming defense all over for Jesuit, and Forney was an imposing figure in the paint, helping lead to all of the turnovers.

Still, even with the strong defense, the Crusaders also needed to make some big shots on offense.

Lubrano did that early. She sank two 3-pointers on her way to scoring eight points in the first quarter, which ended with the Crusaders holding a 16-9 lead.

“I was just reading the defense, seeing what they would give me,” Lubrano said. “Obviously, my teammates worked to help get the opportunities, so I was just putting them in for my team.”

But persistent Mountainside trimmed the Jesuit lead to 21-19 by halftime. In the third quarter, the Mavericks, with junior Geovanna Darlington scoring five consecutive points, put together a 7-0 run to claim a 26-22 advantage with 5 minutes and 15 seconds left in the period.

It didn’t take Jesuit long to respond. The Crusaders ended the period on an 11-2 run, featuring two 3-pointers by Filkins, giving Jesuit a 33-28 lead going to the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders pushed the lead to 44-34 when Lubrano scored three consecutive points going to the final minute.

“It was a pretty big game,” Bayless said. “I mean, we’re all trying to win that title, so every game counts at this point.”

“It was really fun. We knew it was a big game,” Filkins said. “We have two losses (in league play) and they have two losses, so we knew we had to get it done.”

In addition to Lubrano’s 12 points, Jesuit got 11 points from Filkins, seven from Costarella and four from Bayless. Forney had 10 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and a steal.

Besides winning the Metro League title, Jesuit is looking to accomplish a big goal beyond that.

“Again, Chiles, that’s the goal,” Bayless said, referring to the Class 6A state tournament. “It’s so fun to be a part of the tournament. I’m so lucky to have been part of teams that have gone the past three years, so to get there a fourth year would be awesome.”

“One-hundred percent,” Filkins said in agreement. “We got there last year, and it was a great experience, being on that floor. It’s going to take just 100-percent effort for the rest of our games. That’s all it is for us — just being focused.”

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