Riverside Beats Sacramento

Auburn Riverside beat Sacramento and its star forward, Vicki Baugh, in what amounted to a coming out party for its freshman guard.

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON

BEAVERTON, Ore. - For those who believe that youth is wasted on the young, Saturday at Southridge High School was a day for changing minds. It was a day when the precocious turned predatory for Auburn Riverside, Washington state's No. 1 team, per HoopGurlz.com, and maybe now a factor on the West Coast. Timing being everything, the Ravens were able to say "never more" to Sacramento and its superstar forward, Vicki Baugh, on a day when their backcourt enjoyed a wild growth spurt and four days before Baugh receives some big-time assistance.

Mercedes Wetmore

Whether the addition of San Diego State signee Coco Davis would have altered the outcome of the Nike Northwest Invitational, won 65-62 by Riverside, could be debatable given the rate of Raven freshman Mercedes Wetmore's basketball maturation. The blonde bomber rained 16 first-half points on Sacramento en route to a team-high 19 points. She also pulled down six rebounds.

And, oh yeah, did we mention? Wetmore is but a freshman and stands all of 5 feet 7. By next Thursday, she might be running the South Puget Sound League.

"She's just starting to become more and more confident," Riverside coach Adam Barrett said. "She's started to figure out that she can compete on a higher level. That girl is going to be a superstar one day."

Baugh already is a superstar, the No. 5 player in the 2007 class, according to HoopGurlz.com, and she again showed it with 26 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a dramatically undercounted one block.

Unbowed, Wetmore, then Riverside sophomore Nichole Jackson, took the ball several times at the 6-4 Baugh for scores. Jackson, in fact, took up where Wetmore left off, scoring six points during the final 2:31, including two game-cinching free throws with 28.7 seconds to play. She also forced a key turnover when, with 1:44 remaining, she chased down a loose ball at the Sacramento end and called timeout to avoid the scrum.

Nichole Jackson

Southridge rebounded from its close loss to Sacramento on Friday night to take third in its inaugural tournament with a 57-38 victory over Villa Park. The Skyhawks played stifling defense, limiting Villa to just 13 first-half points. Michelle Jenkins led the way offensively for Southridge with 16 points, while Martina Benova chipped in 13.

In the championship, Riverside established control behind Wetmore and a defense that forced Baugh to toil for her points. She missed six of nine first-half shots as the Ravens rotated guards on her, saving 6-1 Stephanie Wilber for help defense. Hitting early jumpers on the way to a 16-point performance, Wilber also was instrumental in drawing Baugh out of the paint, where the Tennessee-bound forward had all but extinguished Southridge's interior scoring the night before.


"When I'm pulling up for threes, that's me believing in myself," Wetmore said. "I was just feeling it. I know at the opening tip if I have it. If I don't have it, I try to step it up at the defensive end and find a way to get into it."

Five games into her high-school career, Mercedes Wetmore already has the wisdom of some seniors, plus some precious hardware to validate it.

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Kiara Tate of Southridge

Audrey Miller of Central Catholic

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Nike NW Invitational Semifinal Report

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