Full Court Press

Winning: It’s a Family Affair for New Nike Champ St. Mary’s of Phoenix

By Lee Michaelson

Publisher

Though it is nearly 7:00 p.m. and just two days before Christmas, the Hamilton High School gym in Chandler, Ariz. is packed to the gills. An enthusiastic crowd spills out of the stands designated for fans and into the area set aside for the college coaches from across the nation who had come to scout the talent. As those bleachers, too, fill up, some are forced to stand in the doorways, hoping to catch a glimpse of the proceedings. They are there to see the best of the best in girls’ high school basketball.

Welcome to the Nike Tournament of Champions!

In this, the title game of the elite Joe Smith Division, where many of the top-ranked girls’ teams in the country had pitted themselves against one another over the past four days, St. Mary’s High School and Riverdale Baptist would lay it all on the line for the unofficial national championship of girls’ high school basketball.

There is little question which team is the crowd favorite: St. Mary’s, located in nearby Phoenix, Arizona, are clearly the local heroes.

Riverdale Baptist, which has journeyed to the tournament all the way from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, has brought along its own contingent of family members and supporters, but understandably has a decidedly smaller cheering section.

Still, in the eyes of most of the journalists who follow the sport, a St. Mary’s win would be a major upset.

Riverdale Baptist entered the competition with a 5-0 record, ranked No. 1 in the country in the “Xcellent 25” girls’ high school basketball rankings promulgated by Full Court’s former publisher and continuing columnist Clay Kallam for MaxPreps.

The Crusaders had finished last season with a 30-5 record and ranked No. 10 nationally. They have a solid core of seniors returning from that campaign, three of them already signed with Division 1 programs in major college conferences—6-0 wings Jennie Simms (West Virginia) and Jonquel Jones (Clemson) and 5-10 guard Kelila Atkinson (Wake Forest). To that nucleus they have added two senior transfers—6-0 center Brittany Jenkins-Murray (LaSalle) and 5-6 point guard Dominique Johnson (Towson). Even some of their younger players are nationally watch-listed.

Across the board, they are bigger, more powerfully built, and more athletic than their opponents from St. Mary’s. Six of their players (as opposed to just three for St. Mary’s) stand six-feet or better. They play a hard-nosed, physical, blacktop style of basketball. And the Crusaders arrived at the Nike hot off an East Coast tournament in which they had totally pummeled the competition, which included Regis Jesuit, another of the top-ranked teams in the country. There is a reason the pundits have them ranked at No. 1.

St. Mary’s seems to be more of a question mark. Though both the Xcellent 25 and the Powerade Fab 50 have them at No. 2 in the rankings, USA Today’s Super 25 pegs them as low as No. 20. In years past, they have competed in the Nike’s Joe Smith Division and seemed a bit over-seeded, taking more than their share of pastings.

Of course, St. Mary’s is not without assets of their own. The team has just two seniors, but both—lithe, willowy 6-3 forward/center Cortnee Walton (Louisville) and studious-looking guard Shilpa Tummala (Harvard)—have signed with D1 programs. Courtney Ekmark, a 6-0 sophomore guard, is a watch-listed prospect. They finished last season 25-2, winning the Arizona state championship while playing in Division 1 of Class 5A (normally reserved for schools with more than 1,200 students), even though their small size, an enrollment of approximately 775, would ordinarily place them in Class 3A. They were state runners-up in the previous two years.

Though more of a finesse team than Riverdale Baptist, the St. Mary’s Knights like to run the basketball and does it well.

And as Riverdale Baptist is about to find out, the Knights also own a special kind of chemistry. Part of it may come from playing together year-round, not just in the regular high-school season. Part of it may come from the fact that their coach has never shied away from competition, but instead has sought out challenges, pitting them against some of the best at the Nike and other elite tournaments year after year.

But there is little question in the minds of Coach Curtis Ekmark and his charges that a big part of it comes from the fact that the St. Mary’s squad is both literally and figuratively a family.

The St. Mary’s roster of 12 players features no fewer than three pairs of sisters. Cortnee Walton plays alongside her sister Brandee, a junior forward (5-10). Then there are twin guards Danielle and Dominique Williams, both 5-9 juniors. Coming along behind them, and promoted from the junior varsity for the Nike Tournament of Champions, are sophomore Aunesa Evans, a 5-10 forward, and little sis Ariah Evans, a 5-11 freshman, and also a forward.

Add to that Ekmark’s daughter Courtney, a 6-0 guard and one of the team’s leading scorers though just a sophomore.

Many of these teammates have played together since they were seven and eight years-old. Watch this team on the court—their nose for the basketball even in transition, the ease with which they seem to find each other, their deft and on-target (at least for this level) passes—and you’ll have an idea of the advantage this familiarity gives them.

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US Teens to Participate in First-Ever FIBA Invitational 3x3 Youth World Championships

By Lee Michaelson

Publisher

FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, will continue its push of 3x3 basketball with the first-ever Invitational 3x3 Youth World Basketball Championships to be held in Rimini, Italy, from September 9-11, and USA Basketball will be there, fielding both boys and girls teams composed of athletes 18 years old and younger.

Representing the United States girls 3x3 team will be four members of the 2011 USA U16 National Team who just recently helped the U.S. claim gold at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in June: Kaela Davis (Buford H.S./Suwanee, GA),  Rebecca Greenwell (Owensboro Catholic H.S. /Owensboro, Ky.),  Linnae Harper (Whitney M. Young H.S./Chicago, Ill.), and Taya Reimer (Hamilton Southeastern H.S. /Fishers, Ind.).

According to FIBA, the 3-on-3 format is the most popular variation of the game played by youngsters and adults on playgrounds throughout the world. FIBA also sees the 3x3 game both as a learning tool and a form of “basic training” for future 5-on-5 players and as a means to popularize the sport worldwide.

In the case of women’s basketball, what FIBA hasn’t said publicly, but was a clear theme underlying its promotion of the concept during the International Congress on Women’s Basketball held concurrently concurrently with the 2010 FIBA Women’s World Basketball Championships in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, last September, is that the 3x3 format also holds the potential for equalizing the international playing field in the face of U.S. stranglehold on the 5-on-5 women’s game.

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Hoop Troop: Maya Moore to Host Shot Clock Shopping Sweepstakes for Kids, Teens; Enter Now

By None

Publisher

NEW YORK – One lucky fan, aged six to 14, will have a chance to win a shopping spree with No.1 draft pick and All-Star Maya Moore in her home town of Atlanta following the end of the 2011 WNBA season. Kids across the country of eligible age can enter the Shot Clock Shopping Spree between Aug. 24 and Oct.13 online at NBAHoopTroop.com when they sign up to be an NBA Hoop Troop member.

Moore will invite the grand-prize winner the winner to Atlanta to celebrate in the latest edition of the nationwide Shot Clock Shopping Spree, a basketball-themed shopping spree. The grand prize includes a three-day, two-night trip to Atlanta, including air fare and hotel accommodations, for the winner and one guest (parent or legal guardian). Once in Atlanta, the randomly selected contestant will team up with the All-Star to learn shooting tips from the pro and win as much basketball merchandise as they can shoot together into an oversized basketball hoop in 24 seconds.

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