STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
 |
CHANDLER, Ariz. - With all its speed, athleticism and discipline, Long Beach Poly probably is the best team in the 2006 Nike Tournament of Champions. But Collins
Hill has Maya Moore and that fact alone may make them the favorites in Thursday's title matchup.
After all, is there a wing-forward, female or male, high school, college or pro, who does more things to make her (or his) team better?
Do we need to count the ways?
Maya Moore alters a shot by Mitty's Kassandra
McAlister |
Moore is on a mission to avenge last year's TOC championship game, when an incorrect official's call erroneously disqualified her during overtime of an instant classic
that went, in her absence, to Christ the King. So this year she's already scored a career-high 42 points to dispatch Notre Dame Academy in the quarterfinals, then
pitched in another 35 during Collins Hill's 75-57 semifinal romp over Archbishop Mitty.
"It didn't feel right," Moore said of last year's TOC finale. "You can't take anything away from Christ the King, but the way it ended is not the way basketball games are
supposed to end. They are supposed to end with the players playing. It just doesn't feel complete."
Not complete, like Moore's game, for example. Her coaches concerned about Collins Hill's late-starting ways so far this week, Moore pounced on Archbishop Mitty
for 17 first-quarter points, building momentum and a comfort zone for her teammates. When Mitty deployed 6-feet Nichole Anderson against Moore, and had more
defenders waiting for her in the lane, she countered with a bevy of mid-range jumpers. When her teammates missed shots, she put them back or tipped them in.
When the situation dictated, Moore improvised. Like the time in the third quarter, when Collins Hill threw her a backdoor lob on a sidelines inbound. Moore was going
to catch the ball too deep under the basket, so she tipped it out to a wide-open Jordan Jones, who splashed a three.
There also were times when it appeared Moore could defend the entire Mitty team by herself. In one sequence, she blocked a three-point attempt by Hannah Stephens,
then snuffed Anderson's ensuing inbound and slapped the ball off her leg to regain possession for Collins Hill. Any time Moore is on the floor, opposing shooters must
be wary of her ability to block shots anywhere on the floor.
Jordan Jones of Collins Hill |
Not only that, Moore was the head of a 1-3-1 trapping zone that created tempo and easy transition points for the Eagles. When Collins Hill extended its pressure, she
played goaltender, once bending to snatch a low-skimming bounce pass thrown by Archbishop Mitty's 5-9 star, Danielle Robinson.
Maybe we need to amend our initial question to whether there is any player at any position at any level who does more. Certainly, there are few who share Moore's
impossible combination of wingspan, balance, explosiveness, technique, basketball IQ and heart.
Long Beach Poly may be tempted to more or less allow Moore to get her and focus on containing her teammates. But that tactic very well may backfire because of the
way Moore gets hers - with energy, intelligence and at both ends of the floor.
Then again, the Jackrabbits threw their stopper, Candice Nichols, with good results against all-world, 6-5 scorer Elena DelleDonne of Ursuline Academy, plus have a
swirl of different, athletic looks to throw at Moore. Making things difficult for the Collins Hill star, Poly could then hope nature takes its course against a team playing
its sixth game in eight days, and that Moore is not as superhuman as she's appeared so far this week.
Yeah, right.
"I expect nothing less than what we've seen the last three games," Collins Hill coach Tracey Tipton said of her star. "She's just a great competitor. When she's on the
court, you know you always have a chance."
Click Here for More 2006 TOC Coverage
Discuss This on Our Message Board:
Click Here
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 girl's 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). He
can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
|