St. Elizabeth Wins Clunker

Led by wing Joy Rushdan and point guard Khadijah Rushdan, St. Elizabeth overcame 20 turnovers to beat the hometown team, Issaquah, at the T-Mobile Invitational in Seattle.

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
SEATTLE, Wash. - So it seems that - for the girls, at least - the T-Mobile Invitational was, in concept, good for the game in terms of exposure, but it also was, in reality, bad for the game - again, in terms of exposure. That is to say, catch four teams on a bad day and the results aren't very pretty, especially when nationally broadcast on cable. After No. 1 Collins Hill fired on just four of eight cylinders because of excessive play and travel, St. Elizabeth of Wilmington, Del., beat Issaquah, Wash., in a clunker of a game for both teams.

Rebounding proved a hair-raising experience for
Issaquah's Erin Nichol (left) and St. Elizabeth's
Khadijah Rushdan

On that latter point, the two coaches and Khadijah Rushdan, St. Elizabeth's nationally ranked star guard, agreed.

"I think we took them for granted," St. Elizabeth coach Tom Ferrier said of Issaquah, which his team defeated 58-37, "coaching staff included."

The Vikings staff did not expect Issaquah to handle its fullcourt pressure as well as it did, Ferrier conceded. It also likely did not expect its own team to cough up the ball 20 times against the pressure by an Issaquah team whose effort was considered underwhelming by coach Kathy Gibson.

Issaquah weathered the St. Elizabeth pressure because of junior point guard Alyssa Shoji, who also downed four three-pointers en route to scoring 20 points - more than half of her team's total. "She can't do it by herself," Gibson said.

Rushdan, St. Elizabeth's usually stellar point guard, committed 10 turnovers. Focused, she may have the best touch and timing on her passes of any point guard in America. Rushdan demonstrated that at times on Wednesday, but was scattered enough to produce the double-figure errors.

Alas, no matter how much everyone likes to avoid talking about it, there is a massive human element to this game. All but Issaquah had to travel great distances to get here. And then Issaquah was in one of the areas hardest hit by the wind storms that crushed the Puget Sound region recently, knocking out power and consequently for the Eagles interrupting the practice regimen.

"We don't think it was our best effort," Rushdan said. "But obviously it got us through the night."

Alyssa Shoji

Symone Woody

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