CHANDLER, Ariz.—The 2012 Nike Tournament of Champions schedule may have been one day shorter than in past seasons but what it wasn’t short on was great basketball and competitive championship games. Adding up the margins of victory in all 12 division championship games and you’ll find a slim 9.08 difference in this year’s title games. Eight of those games were decided by seven or less points. Three of those contests were one possession finishes that thrill winners and break the heart of those who come up short. Saturday’s finals were no coincidence when you consider some of the talented individuals on hand this year in Chandler.
The All-Star teams for the tournament’s top two divisions featured players that we’ll be hearing about for some time to come. Smith Division MVP Gabby Green sealed a title for St. Mary’s Berkeley by banking a game winning runner with six seconds remaining in the game. Co-MVP’s in the E Division, Karlie and Katie Lou Samuelson combined for 68 points in their championship battle with Riverdale Baptist thanks in part to a sisterly 12 of 16 performance from behind the arch. All Star honorees are as follows.
Joe Smith Division All-Star Team
Sierra Calhoun – Christ the King
Mikayla Cowling – St. Mary’s College High School Berkeley
Jordan Matthews – Long Beach Poly
Kelsey Plum – La Jolla Country Day
Jordan Reynolds – Central Catholic
Gabby Green – St. Mary’s College High School Berkeley – Most Valuable Player
E Division All-Star Team
Odera Chidom – Bishop O’Dowd
Sophie Cunningham – Rock Bridge
Chloe Jackson – Riverdale Baptist
Chantel Osahor – St. Mary’s Phoenix
Karlie Samuelson – Mater Dei – Co-Most Valuable Player
Katie Lou Samuelson – Mater Dei – Co-Most Valuable Player
With over 90 teams on hand and 12 divisions of competition it would be impossible to take in all the action. Kevin Lynch recaps the action in the E Division and Joe Smith finals while Prentice Beverly and Lisa Bodine offer up their takes on six of the championship games with each of them providing a perspective on one team or the other in each of those contests.
Recap by Kevin Lynch
The Championship of the “E” division must stand for excellence as the tournaments two top teams competed for the top prize. Riverdale Baptist from Upper Marlboro Maryland took on Santa Ana, California’s Mater Dei. Riverdale is coached by Samuel Caldwell who took over for the very successful Diane Richardson who has moved back into the college ranks with George Washington University. Mater Dei is coached by Kevin Kiernan, who has a reputation as one of the best the business. The first quarter started strong with both teams playing well, trading 3’s and feeling each other out. However, trading 3’s with any team who has the Samuelson sisters in not a great idea. Mater Dei switched to a zone putting 6’3 Katie Lou Samuelson up top to limit Riverdale sharpshooter Chania Ray from getting clean looks. On the offensive end Karlie Samuelson was on fire. How is this for a first half stat? Six for seven on 3’s and 20 points for the senior while sophomore sister Katie Lou added 10 of her own. Halftime score Samuelsons 30-Riverdale 27. Actually it was Mater Dei up 42-27
The third quarter has Coach Caldwell trying everything to stop the shooting clinic being put on by the Stanford bound Karlie and her younger sister Katie Lou, who Blue Star Report has as the #2 ranked 2015 in the country. They came out on fire again and extended the lead to 19 with 2:40 left in the third. This game ultimately turned into the Samuelson Sister Show with them having 12 three balls between them with four minutes left. On the night they only missed 4 three point attempts. Mater Dei would have been tough for anyone to beat tonight. Karlie finished with 38 and Katie Lou added 30 in a well-deserved Championship for Mater Dei. 96-74
Lisa Bodine – Mater Dei
The Samuelson sisters put on a shooting clinic that was the highlight of the tournament. To go along with their stand out performance sophomore Andee Velasco set the tempo by scoring early baskets for Mater Dei. Even though Riverdale Baptist scored 72, defense was never an issue for Mater Dei as they put up 94 of their own. They were able to execute their offensive sets to perfection giving senior Karlie Samuelson and sophomore Katie Lou
Samuelson and opportunity to score 38 and 30 respectively.
Keys to the win: Flare screens!
Prentice Beverly – Riverdale Baptist
Riverdale Baptist had a tough time scoring against Mater Dei’s 2-3 zone defense. They also committed several early turnovers putting them in hole. Defensively, Riverdale Baptist had to answer the Samuelson sisters and Mater Dei’s perimeter onslaught. The sisters, Karlie and Katie Lou finished with 38 and 30 points respectively. Riverdale Baptist’s defense gave up 96 points in a 32 minute game. On a positive not Riverdale did score 74 points with junior Chloe Jackson leading the way with 27 while senior Maya Singleton finished with 19.
Keys to loss: Inability to defend the perimeter
Recap by Kevin Lynch
The championship game of the Joseph Smith Memorial Division was between California powerhouses Long Beach Poly and St. Mary’s Berkley. St. Mary’s jumped out to a quick 10-5 lead prompting Poly’s veteran Head Coach Carl Buggs to call a timeout. Poly is a guard dominated team but on the next two possessions they went inside to 6’0 junior post player Jada Mathews. They did not score on either try but the establishment of the intent to get the ball inside forced St. Mary’s to defend the whole court. The first period ended with a 16-9 lead for St. Mary’s. In the second quarter Poly picked up its trademark pressure defense forcing the tempo and by the 3:20 mark had stormed to the lead on a driving layup by quick junior guard Arica Carter. By halftime they held a 27-25 lead.
When the teams came out for the second half it was more of the same as Poly’s pressure took its toll on the taller, but not quite as quick St. Mary’s guards. Poly jumped up six, 35-29, but a timeout and a stern reminder from Coach Nathan Fripp that this was a championship game got St. Mary’s focused once again. They scored two quick buckets to cut the lead to two at 35-33. Both teams traded numerous bad possessions and in fact no one scored the last 3 minutes of the period.
The fourth opened with St. Mary’s sophomore shooter Zavanna Negro hitting a jumper to tie the game. The teams traded buckets, but with both teams playing tough physical defense points were hard to come by. Halfway through the final quarter things were all tied up at 39. The physical play continued and with 35.9 seconds left Poly called a timeout with the sore knotted at 45 all. Poly proceeded to turn it over out of the timeout and with 6 seconds left 6’2 super junior Gabby Green hit a floating bank shot to give St. Mary’s the lead and the win as a long shot by Poly fell short.
Lisa Bodine – St. Mary’s (Berkeley)
St. Mary’s got off to a good start, using their length and athleticism to score and defend the paint. In the middle quarters of the game they were plagued with sloppy ball handling and eventually lost the lead by a narrow margin. Eventually, they regained their focus with back-to-back possessions in which junior Mikayla Cowling and senior Elexis Goodwin were both fouled scoring. Three points the old fashioned way. The last seconds of the game were probably the most dramatic of the tournament as junior Gabby Green, who had struggled offensively, scored dramatically with 6 seconds left in the game.
Keys: Playing together as a team during crunch time.
Prentice Beverly – Long Beach Poly
Long Beach Poly is an athletic ball club that is very balanced offensive and defensively. They love to use the dribble drive to score in the paint or kick it out to the spot up shooters. Defensively, they like to apply full court pressure while dropping back into a zone defense. St. Mary’s Berkley is a team that played a similar style to Poly. It was an evenly matched game throughout. The difference was St. Mary’s guard play. They were much bigger and created havoc in getting to the paint. The lead went back and forth in a game that went down to the final possession. St. Mary’s big guard junior Gabby Green attacked off the dribble to score the go ahead and winning basket with 6 seconds remaining. LB Poly was led by junior Arica Carter with 13 points.
Keys to loss: St. Mary’s size advantage at the guard position was the difference maker.
Prentice Beverly – Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart out of Louisville, KY is a scrappy ball club that plays a classic 5 out offense. They are a well balanced team and due to the lack of size are forced to play small ball. That balance makes them an extremely hard team to press with all five players on the court having the ability to handle the rock. Defensively, they play a controlled chaos brand of full court man. When you combine Sacred Heart offense and defense you have a superb blend of attacking defense and a methodical patient offense that results in backdoor cuts and layups. Unfortunately, the same hectic
style that built the lead also gave it back to a hard charging Archbishop Mitty team. In a highly competitive game that saw several lead changes down the stretch, Sacred Heart had just enough left in the tank to pullout the win.
Sophomore DaiJa Ruffin led Sacred Heart with 27 points.
Keys to the win: Sacred Heart’s relentless pressure defense and patient offense proved too
much for Archbishop Mitty in the final minute.
Lisa Bodine – Archbishop Mitty
With veteran Coach Sue Phillips on the sideline Archbishop Mitty is always a formidable opponent. After committing seven live ball turnovers in early in the game, Mitty was able to run off a quick 5 points to cut into Sacred Hearts’ double digit lead. Senior guard Emily Dinger tied it at 48 with5:40 left in the game. After another lead change, junior Kelli Hayes who finished with 18, drove in from the perimeter for an uncontested layup. However, on their last possession Mitty failed to get a quality shot off before the final buzzer.
Key: Early turnovers leading to a slow start and matchup issue with Sacred Heart’s 5 guard attack.
Prentice Beverly – Windward
Windward was locked up in a tough battle with a scrappy Miramonte team holding on to a 35-31 lead going to the half. Thank goodness for halftime intermission because immediately after the break Windward junior point guard Jordin Canada lit a fire under her team. Led by the 5-7 Canada, their tenacious man to man pressure created multiple turnovers leading to several fast break points. That burst helped dictate the tempo as they stretched it out to a 33-12 run sealing Miramonte’s fate. Canada did an excellent job setting up teammates Courtney Jaco, a senior who
who finished with 23 points, and junior Kristen Simon who had 16. Canada had 12 of her own to go with her stockpile of assists.
Keys to the win: Windward’s pressure defense as well as their tempo which directly led to finishing the game on a 33-12 run and the 68-43 victory.
Lisa Bodine – Miramonte
After only being down by 4 points at half time Miramonte was not able to maintain any momentum coming out of the locker room. Against Windward’s 2-3 matchup zone they struggled to find any type of offensive rhythm. Freshman Keanna de los Santos did manage to make a 3-pointer from the corner for their first basket of the second half, but with leading scorer junior Breanna Alford on the bench with 4 fouls they could not cut into Windward’s lead.
Key: Too many empty possessions
Prentice Beverly – Brea Olinda
Brea Olinda won a highly contested game. Both teams play similar styles and are almost mirror images of each other. Brea Olinda applied a tough in your face man to man defense as well as switching back and forth to an effective 2-3 zone defense. Brea Olinda made several runs to build a small lead but Hamilton found a way to answer each time. Brea Olinda after two quarters 23-19 but the game saw several lead changes in the second half. Brea Olinda’s 5-8 senior Anna Kim scored 10 of her team’s 14 fourth quarter points to answer every run that Hamilton made. Hamilton’s 6-0 seniors Aliyah Dickson and Kyndall Adams both contributed to a run that helped them take a brief lead however Kim was there to answer again as she finished with 27 points.
Key to the win: Hamilton’s inability to find an answer for Kim’s scoring.
Lisa Bodine – Hamilton
Even with having the luxury of playing on their home court Hamilton seemed uncomfortable as the visitor. They were getting beat in their player to player defense and their guards were challenged to find a way to stop Brea’s senior point guard Anna Kim. Despite the fact that their main two scorers, Kyndall Adams and Aliyah Dickson, weren’t getting good looks at the basket, they trailed just 23-19 at halftime. In the second half they picked up some momentum when guard Casey Rowden nailed a 3-pointer to give them their first lead. For the rest of the game it was back and forth, with Hamilton doing a better job of attacking the paint. Adams led Hamilton with 15 and Dickson scored 7 clutch points in the fourth quarter.
Keys: A couple of missed free throws late in the game.
Lisa Bodine – Grandview
Grandview was completely dominant from the start of the game. They came out pressuring the ball full court, forcing Campbell into multiple turnovers. As a result they ended the first quarter up 17-2. Rice signee 6-1 center Adaeze Obinnah dominated the paint on both ends of the floor, notching close to a triple double with 18 points and 8 blocks. Even when their energy was low later in the game they never let the lead get under 6 points. With about four minutes left they picked up the pace, going on a 9-0 run with crucial baskets from senior forward Natasha Edge.
Keys to the win: Establishing their inside presence early on and controlling the boards.
Prentice Beverly – Campbell County
Campbell County fell behind early in the first quarter while struggling to solve the riddle
of Grandview’s pressure defense. Campbell County committed countless turnovers that Grandview converted into a 17-2 lead after the first period. During the quarter intermission Campbell made the necessary adjustment to breaking the Grandview pressure and finished the half on a 7-0 run narrowing the score to 28-14. Midway through the third quarter Campbell County went on a 16-3 run that closed the gap to 31-23 with a three pointer by 6 foot senior Sierra Toms. Both squads traded buckets and Grandview led 39-31 heading into the final period. Campbell County made yet another run in the fourth cutting the deficit to 41-37 on back to back 3’s by Toms. However, Campbell County could not finish the comeback and Grandview scored 6 unanswered points to make it 47-37 and put the game out of reach. Toms
led Campbell County with 14 points and senior McCorra Ford had 11.
Contributing keys to losing: Too many turnovers leading to a slow start and going down 15. The uphill battle the rest of the way ultimately resulted in simply running out of gas.
Other Division Championship results
Desper Division – Etiwanda 57 Oaks Christian 50
B Division – Horizon Christian 71 Marcos de Niza 61
H Division – Marlborough 68 Fairfax 60
K Division – San Clemente 51 Bradshaw Christian 45
M Division – Denver East 58 Mater Dei Catholic 46
N Division – Rancho Verde 52 Corona Centennial 50
