STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
Katelan Redmon celebrates the State 4A championship with Lewis
and Clark teammates |
TACOMA, March 11 - Sometimes the best things in life are not free, but simply unexpected. Like winning the lottery. Or meeting your spouse at a workshop.
Or having your niece play the basketball game of her life in the biggest game of yours.
Katelan Redmon receives
congratulations from the Lewis &
Clark bench |
Such is the charmed existence of Jim Redmon, coach of the consequently State 4A high-school girl's basketball champion Lewis and Clark Tigers. His older brother Chuck's daughter, Katelan Redmon, a junior, had 22 points, 17 during a shockingly decisive first half, as the Tigers bullied slightly favored Prairie 66-44.
Redmon's title-winning performance was a surprise to both coaches, Uncle Jim and Prairie's Al Aldridge, though Aldridge said he's warned his players that the 6-footer was Lewis and Clark's x-factor.
"It was just waiting to happen," said Aldridge, who had to settle for his third runner-up finish, to go with four titles, since 1994. "But not to that extent."
The extent was mind-blowing considering that Redmon had scored just 15 points in Lewis and Clark's first three tournament games. She was so under the radar that she wasn't even voted to the all-tournament team, for which ballots are due by halftime of the championship game but often submitted well before.
On the other hand, those watching carefully will have noted an extremely versatile player with length, good wing and guard skills, good court sense and a good mid-range offensive game. Redmon's ability to create off the dribble, for example, helped create early foul trouble for Alex Montgomery in the quarterfinals against Lincoln. Most of the time, she wisely deferred to the team's star, Heather Bowman, a nationally rated power-forward prospect who is headed to Gonzaga and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Tigers coach Jim Redmon hugs
guard Ren Mallory |
"I don't know what she ate, but we're going to feed it to her next year," coach Redmon said. "Man, she carried us. She had the energy, the defense. She did a lot of different things. This was exciting because we hadn't seen this out of her yet."
Redmon, the player, spun the wheels right off Prairie's championship wagon while revealing just about every part of her offensive repetoire during a telltale and timely, 2-minute, 46-second stretch near the beginning of the second quarter. After planting a foul-line jumper and a put-back, she buried a pull-up jumper after delivering a convincing ball fake to start her move. Then she crashed inside for a three-point play and completed the outburst by attacking the rim after a filthy inside-out dribble move for her 10th and 11th points of the stretch.
All told, Remond made all eight of her field-goal attempts in the first half, ran that string to nine before missing her 10th attempt and finished 10 for 12 from the field. She also usd her vantage point and Prairie's defensive focus to deliver four assists and was disruptive on defense with two steals and a block.
"When she went off like that," said Bowman, who had 16 points, "it just got everyone else going."
Katelan wasn't the only member of the Redmon family who offered up a grand performance. Her uncle, Jim, managed a nearly perfect game.
Hannah Rothstrom (22) draws one
of two early charges from Prairie's
Katie Madison |
Redmon's Tigers played some of the best defense this tournament has seen in recent years, limiting the Falcons to just 36.8-percent shooting, just one three-pointer and forcing them to commit 22 turnovers. Lewis and Clark held four opponents to a tournament-low 44.8 points per game.
The Tigers fronted Prairie star Katie Madison and twice planted help defenders on her blind side for early offensive fouls that served to rob the Falcons of an option to get back into the game with physical play. Prairie instead tried to finesse high-post lob entries that either left the receiver too deep under the basket or sailed out of bounds. Lewis and Clark also targeted Prairie's super soph, Ashley Corral, and successfully neutralized the Falcons' two key players, forcing Corral and Madison into a combined 13 turnovers.
His niece may have made him look even better, but Redmon had a Midas touch with his offensive calls throughout the game. Lyndi Seidensticker, the Tigers' sharp-shooting junior, had 10 points, including a pair of threes. Bowman, Ren Mallory and Jade Peone also drained three-pointers and the Tigers shot a blistering 53.8 percent, a pretty remarkable figure for a 4A championship game that figured to be more of a defensive struggle.
Mostly, Katelan Redmon walked into the championship game a little less blinded than earlier in her first state tournament by the bright lights of the Tacoma Dome.
Tournament MVP Heather Bowman
blocks a jumper by Prairie's Ashley
Corral |
"It was pretty overwhelming," Redmon said of her first couple tournament games. "As the games went on, it was not as shocking. I kind of got used to it."
Change was what Redmon said she had sought when she transferred from Mt. Spokane to Lewis and Clark. That, and a desire to play for her uncle.
It was a fortuitous development for Lewis and Clark. The Tigers beat Prairie by three in last year's quarterfinals, but were knocked out of title contention by a hot Snohomish team in the semis and beat rival University to place third. Lightning bolt guard Briann January graduated and now is a freshman at Arizona State, but Redmon's transfer made up for the loss.
"It's been different, but I've liked it," Redmon said of playing for her Uncle. "He has treated me like he treats everyone else."
On that point, coach Redmon agreed.
"She may have been family," he said, "but, bottom line, I treated her like everyone else."
And that, uncle and niece being on the same page, was another unexpected pleasure on an evening full of them.
Hannah Rothstrom of Lewis & Clark | 
Merritt Cameron of Prairie |
Our Complete 2006 State 4A Tournament Coverage Menu:
4A Tournament Gallery
Dozens of images from one of the most competitive State 4A tournaments in years, starting from the championship game and moving back to the beginning.
Elite 11: Tigers Roar
Lewis and Clark had the best combination of size, guard play, defense and coaching in the state this season.
A 4A Family Affair
Katelan Redmon's timely but unexpected 22 points help land a state championship for her and her uncle, Lewis and Clark coach Jim Redmon.
4A Tournament Recap
MVP, all-tournament team with profiles and comments, all scores and statistical leaders.
Practice Makes ... Third
Dara Zack practiced for the moment and came through for University, earning the Titans their highest finish at State.
'Desperation Mode' for Ike
After a quarterfinal loss, Eisenhower tossed all inhibitions aside, and plotted a course to fourth place.
Block Party for T-Birds
Mount Tahoma's unorthodox, frantic style, led by Shauniece Samms' shot-blocking, powered the T-Birds through the consolation bracket for a fifth-place finish.
Big and Defensive
Lewis & Clark and Prairie reach the State 4A championship game with great size and defense.
Stock on the Rise
The Kentwood junior has been the talk of the State 4A tournament and a hit with college coaches and scouts.
Pick Your Poison
There is so much to fear from the four 4A semifinalists, it's difficult to choose which to fear most.
Remember the Titans
When considering the candidates for 2006's darlings of destiny, Angie Bjorklund and University stand out from the pack.
Wednesday 4A Photos
Images from furious first-round action at the Tacoma Dome.
The Wolfpack is Back
One amazing youth basketball team helped produce three of the region's top young point guards, plus the core of the Jackson High School team that qualified for the State 4A
tournament for the first time in its history.
4A Bracket Breakdown
How we see the tournament unfolding, round by round and game by game, to a University vs. Auburn Riverside final featuring stars Angie Bjorklund and Julie Futch.
Elite Eleven: You Go, Girls
Three women - Joyce Walker, Penny Gienger and Kathy Gibson - enjoyed outstanding, role-setting seasons in girl's high-school basketball..
State 4A Team Capsules
Essential information on tournament participants, with power rankings by HoopGurlz.com (not predicted finish). Individual team capsules also can be accessed by clicking team
name from front-page list of qualifiers.
Commit List
Know where all the seniors are headed after the tournament. We have the most complete list anywhere of Division I commitments by players from Washington and Oregon.
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached
the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle
Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002).
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