My Life at State

Nichole discusses Auburn Riverside's first two games at the Washington State 3A tournament, including the near-upset by Skyline.

Entry No. 6 / March 9, 2007

SEATTLE, Wash. - First round, Washington State 3A Tournament at the KeyArena, bright and early for tipoff against Issaquah High School, the 2006 state runners-up. That said, we would have our hands full. Before warmups we get into our huddle and started getting each other pumped up to get after it,which is what we did.

Nichole, about to hit a three against Skyline

We knew against Issaquah that we had to come out and set the tone for tournament. The whole team played “Riverside Basketball” which hopefully gets us the wins to make it to the “Big Show” on Saturday! But during the game we had our hands full with my former club teammate Alyssa Shoji and her squad not backing down to our pressure defense, the game was very tough and “Issy” is well coached by Kathy Gibson. We ended up pulling it out 71-50.

After our game we sat in the stands to watch Capital play Skyline to see who our next opponent would be. Skyline got the win against Capital 65-38. There was doubt amongst some people watching that Riverside wouldn’t be able to get it done against Skyline and, for the first half of the game they were right. Coach Sealey of Skyline really had her team prepared for us and it seemed they just couldn’t miss a shot. We just couldn’t find our groove. At halftime, it was Skyline 28, Auburn Riverside 26.

The second half was a different story. The horses were let loose, we came out to play, got after it and played great defense to come away with a 63-52 win. Skyline is a very good team and I give them a lot of props because they played their butts off and gave us a great game.

So now we are heading into the semifinals on Friday night against Eryn Jones & Co., No. 2 ranked and undefeated Meadowdale High School out of Lynnwood, Wash. No one said the road to the State 3A title would be easy. I’ll let you know how we did.

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Nichole Jackson has been a fixture on HoopGurlz.com, as she was a perennial selection to all-tournament teams in youth-basketball events conducted by the website. Last year, Nichole started as a freshman for Auburn Riverside, which advanced to the semifinals of the Washington State 4A tournament. As a sophomore this year, Nichole will run the point for a team expected to be one of the top two in the Washington State 3A classification. A member of the National Honor Society, Nichole hopes to study communications in college and go into broadcasting. Click here to view Nichole's player profile.