Dusted off the ol’ voice recorder to go cover a game for The Seattle Times this week. Here’s the story.
Couple other thoughts from West Seattle’s dominant showing:
-West Seattle looked like the greatest offensive basketball team of all time in the first quarter, scoring 29 points on what had to be close to 80 percent shooting. They broke the Cleveland press like nobody’s business, which is a lot easier when all five players on the floor can effectively handle the ball. Things cooled down after that, but WS showed it’s capable of playing lights-out for extended stretches.
-Come playoff time, when the Wildcats are squaring off against some of the other teams in a loaded Class 3A, players like Gabby and Grace Sarver will make all the difference. One’s a senior (Gabby), one’s a freshman (Grace), but both are fearless guards who help take the pressure off high-scoring forwards Lydia Giomi and Lexi Ioane.
-Might as well mention Giomi now. The future Oregon Duck is about as mobile a 6-foot-6 girl you could possibly imagine — she was regularly beating Cleveland’s guards down the floor in transition — and also showed a pretty impressive touch around the rim. She and Ioane teamed up for some Spursian interior passing (OK, not quite, but not too shabby). And her motor on the defensive end stands out. I’m probably not breaking any real new ground here, but you can definitely see why she’s a Pac-12 recruit.
-I will just say that the level and style of play in the Metro are slightly different than, say, your average night in the Lewis & Clark League down in Oregon. Bit of a change-up from what I watched for a lot of last year.
-Cleveland looked like a team still trying to find its identity. To be fair, probably not the best night to swoop in, when the opponent is one of the best teams in the state, but the Eagles definitely looked like a group still figuring out exactly what they want to be after losing Jayde Christopher and Joyce Harrell to graduation. That duo led Cleveland to three straight state title games, a first in the classification, and two titles. There were interesting sparks, though: Tierycka Clark is a monster down low who seems like she should be an automatic double-double, and Ryshun Sampson showed a lot of promise as a shot-creator on the perimeter. And the Eagles are still 8-3 and in the top half of the Metro standings — this is a good team. Just a step below coach Jamie Redd’s truly elite outfits from recent years past.