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 Courtney Vandersloot
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Courtney Vandersloot of Kentwood put on the show of the Washington 4A tournament, dropping 35 points on Mead and leading some to wonder if she isn't the best player in a state that includes Angie Bjorklund. | ||||||||
TACOMA, Wash. - The most spectacular play of the Washington State 4A tournament so far would not even have made SportsCenter. There was no dunk attached or preening athletes to tolerate because it was strictly a girl thing. There was no halfcourt shot or dipsy doodle anything. In fact, there was not even a made basket involved. Just Courtney Vandersloot, her athleticism and, mostly, her will. It was a time during Kentwood's quarterfinal barnburner against Mead of Spokane, Wash., when the clarion call was sounded, or the bat signal was trained over Gotham City - a time when Vandersloot received the unmistakeable signal that her team needed her to step up and lead. So she furiously snuffed a Mead player's baseline shot attempt and during ensuing race for the loose ball, went airborne, saw an opportunity to toss the ball off her opponent and seized it, pulling off a miraculous play. However, an official in the neighborhood ruled that Vandersloot already was out of bounds, so the ball went to Mead on the baseline. Undetoured, Vandersloot covered every inbound attempt like a mother bird shielding an egg from the cold, so the ball stayed there for five seconds and was turned back over to the Conquerors. Not long after, Vandersloot was ending another slalom through the Mead defense with a layup.
"When I am out there and things are not going our way, I look to myself," Vandersloot said after putting a mesmerizing 35 points on Mead to engineer a 70-60 victory for No. 1 Kentwood. "I have a lot of support on this team, so I try to lead by example and see if the others will follow." Exactly. Just as her coach, Keith Hennig, predicted on Wednesday, Vandersloot exerted her will on this march to a state championship. The occasion that prompted the outburst was a first-round game that, for mere mortals, would have been celebrated because of 20 points scored. Instead, Vandersloot virtually disowned it. And even Hennig said, "Last night wasn't Courtney." But Thursday night certainly was. Vandersloot's were often spectacular, always timely points, including 10 straight during a decisive stretch into the third quarter. If she was delivering a message, it coursed through the Tacoma Dome like an air-raid siren, even prompting one Eastern Washington hoops type to make the sacriligeous suggestion that maybe University's Angie Bjorklund wasn't the best player in the state. Gasp. As an aside, you wouldn't have known Bjorklund's queenly status, just judging by the sublime goings on in the bottom half of the bracket. There, University has been in such cruise control that coach Mark Stinson is pulling his hair out in spite of two lopsided victories. That's partly because the first couple of days have been like a furlough for Bjorklund. She spent a second straight game in foul trouble, leaving teammates to take up the slack, as Dara Zack did with her 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Riki Schiermeister did with her trio of three-pointers, as the Titans dismissed Bothell 60-22. The victory brings on Prairie in the semifinal. Despite everyone's protestations to the contrary, the Falcons are as close as any to being a one-person team. And that one person, Ashley Corral, came through with 21 points and six assists, with coach Al Aldridge chipping in a momentum-altering press, during Prairie's 54-33 victory over Snohomish. "They're set up a lot like us last year with Daesha Henderson," Snohomish coach Ken Roberts said, referring to the current Seattle Pacific freshman. "I saw hard hard it was for Daesha last year and really respect a kid like Ashley and what she's doing."
Lewis and Clark presents a crushing proposition. If you don't stop them, you'll get in-your-face pressured and, if you don't score, the Tigers are coming right back at you. The Rough Riders, which had done much of the same all season, played into the frantic pace, missing a lot of rushed shots, feeding the Tigers' frenzy. "They got us playing out of our skin," Roosevelt coach Bill Resler said. "There doesn't seem to be much of a dropoff from last year's team." Mead coach Regan Drew, whose team lost twice to Lewis and Clark in the brutally tough Greater Spokane League, favored the Tigers, saying "Lewis and Clark's pressure wears you down. I don't think Kentwood's seen that kind of pressure. They'll have to adjust to that." Both Kentwood and Lewis and Clark face the daunting task of trying to run and pressure their way through four straight, gruelling days of tournament play. It's been problematic for many similar teams in the past. They also will engage in what Hennig predicts will be a "track meet," then have to come back the next day to play for a championship against a team that features Bjorklund or Corral. Kentwood and Lewis and Clark have shown themselves to be the class of this tournament. The question will be whether either can emerge from the grind and prove it. "I think a lot of it is mental," Vandersloot said. "We're not going to have 100 percent legs tomorrow. We know that. But we just know we have to dig deep because we can do it mentally, we can do it physically. That's what we are - we are mentally strong and we're going to look to just keep playing our game." With Vandersloot and a No. 14 nationally ranking in tow, Kentwood entered the tournament winning the mental game. And the leader of the Conquerors just gave the field even more to contemplate. Friday's Schedule Jackson vs. Puyallup, 11:00 am Mount Tahoma vs. Lake Stevens, 12:30 pm Roosevelt vs. Mead, 2:00 pm Snohomish vs. Bothell, 3:30 pm Semi: Lewis and Clark vs. Kentwood, 7:00 pm Semi: Prairie vs. University, 8:30 pm Thursday's Results Puyallup 50, Central Kitsap 38 Jackson 59, Skyview 55 Mount Tahoma 69, Bellarmine Prep 52 Lake Stevens 51, Kentlake 34 Lewis and Clark 50, Roosevelt 43 Kentwood 70, Mead 60 Prairie 54, Snohomish 33 University 60, Bothell 22 Wednesday's Results Lewis and Clark 59, Puyallup 36 Roosevelt 61, Central Kitsap 27 Kentwood 58, Skyview 44 Mead 74, Jackson 59 Prairie 48, Bellarmine Prep 22 Snohomish 56, Mount Tahoma 48 Bothell 59, Kentlake 41 University 53, Lake Stevens 43 Tournament Top Guns (through Thursday) Courtney Vandersloot, Kentwood, 35 points vs. Mead Kristi Kingma, Jackson, 31 vs. Mead Mandy Saintz, Bothell, 27 vs. Kristi Kingma, Jackson, 23 vs. Skyview Kelli Valentine, Mead, 23 vs. Jackson Ashlee Smith, Skyview, 21 vs. Jackson Ashley Corral, Prairie, 21 vs. Snohomish Courtney Vandersloot, Kentwood, 20 vs. Skyview RaNesha Pate, Mount Tahoma, 19 vs. Snohomish Dacotah Ettl, Central Kitsap, 19 vs. Puyallup Mary Ochiltree, Lake Stevens, 19 vs. Kentlake Tournament Top Glass Cleaners (through Thursday) Shauneice Samms, Mount Tahoma, 23 rebounds vs. Bellarmine Mackenzie Argens, Roosevelt, 13 vs. Central Kitsap Brittany Eskridge, Jackson, 12, vs. Mead Dara Zack, University, 12 vs. Bothell Kelli Valentine, Mead, 11 vs. Kentwood Darylynn Moss, Bothell, 10 vs. Kentlake Morganne Comstock, Kentlake, 10, vs. Lake Stevens Click Here
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