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BOyS one win away
(Continued from page 23.) mind shootin' from. And he hit it nedy it was sort of the reverse -
mentioned Mister Trondsen.
"I think Corey was six for seven
or something like that the first
half," says Jensen, referring to
those three-pointers. "He got into
a little rhythm where it was pretty
much money for about a half.
"And that allowed us to have
some opportunities to do things
inside because they were so con-
scious of him the second half. That
opened up a lot of things inside for
US."
THE CLIMBERS HAD a ten-
point lead in the first half and
then, after Kennedy cut it to four
by the half, got it back up to just
shy of double digits in the second
half.
"And then we had a couple mis-
handles and they ended up coming
back," says Coach. "They took the
lead early in the fourth quarter.
And then we came back and had
about a four-point lead. And we
ran off some clock, and naturally
they were trying to foul. And we
lost a pass and they went down
and scored to tie it in the last min-
ute - I'd say with between 15 and
20 seconds letL"
ENTER GO-TO GUY Curbs,
who up to that point had been
double-teamed into ll-point pro-
duction roughly half of his near-
league-leading scoring average.
But first he had to get the ball
in his hands - and that process too
was memorable, assures Jensen.
"Two or three kids made some
really nice decisions and some
good plays on it," he says, taking
you back to those final seconds.
"We ran a little entry and kicked
the ball down to Alex Olson, who
had a fairly open shot. But a guy
was runnin' at him, and he shot-
faked. And the kid got up in the air
and Alex made a real hard dribble
and then saw Curtis by himself
and kicked it up to him.
"Curtis had stepped up at the
top of the circle - probably off the
edge of the free-throw lane, at the
three-point line."
Right in the 6-4 senior's comfort
zone?
"Yeah," says Jensen, grinning.
"One of those spots that ha doesn't
with about two seconds left..."
UNFORGETTABLE HIGH, was
it? For players and coaches alike,
assures Jensen.
"We've had some pretty decent
years," says the veteran coach.
"I mean, we've won 14, 15 games
where we haven't gotten into this
position.
"And this group of kids hadn't
even played in a playoff game to
speak of, you know, until the oth-
er night.
"So it was a terrific way to start.
You betcha." He grins.
"You know, they will have all
these memories. And those are
the kind that you remember a life-
time..."
AS FOR THE one that got
away - Saturday night's winner-
to-state nailbiter with Port Ange-
les - it found the Climbers falling
prey to a reversal of fortune, as it
were. And in the offing was no less
than their first state berth in fully
30 years.
"Yeah, it was almost a reversal,"
says Jensen, comparing it with
Thursday's game. "It seemed like
every loose ball or every tipped
ball ended up in Port Angeles'
hands. And the night with Ken-
which was sort of strange, because
if you looked at the two teams
quickness-wise Kennedy looked a
lot quicker.
"And we were quicker to the
ball that night, and I can remem-
ber two or three plays where kids
'Those are
the kind that
you remember
a LIFETIME:
SENIOR DEREK RANNEY
dives for one Saturday.
came from outta nowhere to come
up with balls. And then it sorta got
reversed on us on Saturday night.
"I can remember two or three
balls that two kids had their hands
on - you know, one from each team
- and they ended up with almost
every one of those."
WHAT HURT perhaps even
more, though, says Jensen, was
his Climbers' inability to take ad-
vantage of the Roughriders' defen-
sive concession, as it were.
"We really didn't make 'em pay
for pressing us," he says. "And I've
talked to a couple of the kids since
then, and I'm gonna talk to 'em to-
night a little bit - I think because
we were concerned about gettin'
into gym rat situation - or just
flyin' up and down. And we didn't
wanna do that with 'era. And so we
emphasized that a lot - both for
Kennedy and Port Angeles.
"Cuz last year Port Angeles just
went up and down the floor on us
- especially here. And I think that,
because of that and the way we pre-
sented it maybe, there was a mis-
understanding of what we wanted
against their press. Because I felt,
especially in the first half, there
vere about half a dozen times
where we had numbers - where we
were maybe two on one or three on
two - and we sorta pulled the ball
off. And I'm not sure that's what
we really wanted t' do."
BE SO CONSERVATIVE? ...... YOU BE THE JUDGE: The ref called him for a foul
"Exactly," says Jensen. "We Climber junior Alex bison (22) made this picture.
were maybe too conservative shot block in Saturday's loss to Port Angeles.
in that aspect of it. Because we
'70 cagers finally to°ffensivePressing'W°uldliket°makethempayf°r"BecaUSego get ateamcouple-threetheagainstbest thingaeasypressfOrbas.anis Owls' maiden sta
kets. Cuz all of a sudden then the Owl hoopdom's historic state Shelby Landsem 8.
get some revenge
By CHARLES GAY
Yes, Terry Gregg did smile
when he heard that Shelton's
Highclimbers had beaten John F.
Kennedy on a last-seconds ,bomb
by Curtis Trondsen in a district
playoff game last week.
Hearing the news by phone from
his son Bryan took Gregg back 37
years to a night on which JFK beat
his Climbers in a playoff game in
his first year as Shelton's coach. It
was a double-overtime nightmare
in which an average guard for the
Lancers went unconscious for 41
points in JFK's 83-74 victory.
. ,,
It flashed right back to me,
Gregg said this week. "There's
some justice."
The senior-laden 1969-1970
team was not only his first but
one of his favorites and most tal-
ented. It was packed with multi-
sport stars. Senior Mike Sparks,
a cat-quick 6-1 forward who could
jump out of the gym, is still the
only Shelton hoopster in modern
times to land a Division I-A schol-
arship. He went to the University
of Washington after leading the
Climbers in scoring that year.
Just behind Sparks in the scor-
ing column was 5-9 senior guard
Jim Corey, who once pitched 12
innings of an SHS baseball game
and won it with a triple in the bot-
tom of the 12th. His cousin, 5-8
senior guard Rusty Corey, was
a long-range bomber before the
day of the three-point shot. When
Rusty Corey died a few years ago,
Gregg called him "the straw that
stirred that team."
The squad had a 6-2 senior cen-
ter, Brad Jones, who had trans-
ferred in that year. Jones, also an
all-star baseball pitcher, battled
6-6 and 6-7 giants to a standstill
all year in the Olympic League.
Starting at the other forward was
6-0 junior Bob Turner, one of the
finest defensive players Gregg
has coached, who led the team
in shooting percentage. He had
broad-jumped 19-41/2 when he was
15 years old and already set the
Highclimber 18-hole golf record of
one-under 71.
First off the bench were 5-10
senior forward Randy Lewis and
5-7 junior guard Kevin Dorcy.
Lewis, one of the. finest jumpers
in Shelton track-and-field history,
rebounded like he was 6-4. Dorcy
was a track star in junior high who
excelled in baseball in high school.
All three guards were amazingly
quick and stole the ball and ran
the fast break like pros.
"The team played with such
heart," Gregg said of his height-
rhallenged charges that went 14-
5 overall and 11-3 in league. They
lost twice to nonleague Elma, who
won the state A title that year with
a future NBA player named Rod
Derline. The league losses were
to Central Kitsap, the defending
state AA champ, a monster Bain-
bridge team and West Bremerton.
The Climbers entered the Ken-
nedy game in a neutral Puyallup
gym in 1970 needing to win to
make regionals. A kid named Dave
Houk was their undoing. Every-
thing he threw up seemed to go in.
Against the best defensive team
in a strong Olympic League, Houk
and the Lancers shot 58 percent.
Gregg remembers Houk dribbling
the ball over the half-court line
several times, taking a few steps
and tossing it up. And in.
First Rusty Corey guarded
Houk, then Turner, then Dorcy.
"Even Jimmy (Corey) had a turn
on him," Gregg recalled. No one
could cool him off.
Despite Houk having the game
of his life on that very night, the
Climbers scrapped to a 63-63 tie
at the end of regulation. Then they
had the lead and the ball with 20
seconds to go in the first overtime
only to lose possession and have
JFK tie it 72-72. The second over-
time was a disaster for SHS after it
got behind early and was forced to
(Please turn to page 25.)
Page 24 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 1, 2007
pressing team's mental attitude
changes a little bit, and they're
more worried about giving up lay-
ups.
"And I thought there were may-
be three or four possessions in the
first half that we coulda done that.
And we didn't."
THE REFS GOT more than a
little flak from the Climber side of
the gym, as it happens, during the
fateful final minutes of Saturday's
game, when the Roughriders got
one call after another amid a span
that saw them turn an eight-point
deficit into a four-point lead a's the
clock ticked down under a minute
and the Climbers' fate was all but
sealed.
But was the officiating actually
to blame?
"I felt like it was sort of inter-
esting," hedges Coach Jensen.
"Because we the three-man me-
chanics, you had three guys - and
two of 'em were sorta calling the
game one way and one of 'era was
callin' it different, I thought.
'rhere was one guy that was
callin' a lot of hand checks and
over-the-backs - and fairly close.
And then the other two guys were
lettin' them really play.
"AND, UNFORTUNATELY,
I felt like in the fourth quarter,
with the way they rotate, the guy
that was underneath Port Ange-
les' basket called a couple of hand
checks on us and a couple o' reach-
es. And then he rotated out, so he
was way down the floor when we
were tryin' to bring the ball up the
floor. And we had the two guys
that were lettin' us play a little bit
more - which probably didn't play
into us. You know?
"And I'm not sayin' it was all
the officiating. I just think that
three guys were callin' the game,
and two of 'em were callin' it the
one way and the other guy was
callin' it a little different. And it
was tough to adjust."
P.A. REALLY FAST, was it?
Not particularly, says Jensen.
"We turned the ball over up
high, he reminds. "You know,
(Please turn to page 25.)
experience yielded a come-from-
behind win tbr the girls and plenty
of memories all the same for the
two-and-out boys last week in Ya-
kima.
Mary M. Knight's girls roared
from behind to beat Lummi 51-
49 in their opener but then fell
out by way of successive losses to
Sprague-Harrington (34-71) and
top-ranked Curlew (36-83). Their
boy counterparts - like them in
their first all-Washington hoop
donnybrook in MMK history - fell
28-56 to LaCrosse-Washtucna and
44-65 to Entiat.
GIRLS
Mary M. Knight 8 20 36 51
Lumml 11 32 45 49
Mary M. Knight - Cassy Willey 4, Kelsey
Kingery, Shareese Willey 15, Alicea Scott 15,
Shelby Adsero 2, Amanda Vera 4, Teryssa
Toppano 9, Melissa Kingery, Heather Leggett
2.
FG - 18-69; FT - 13-25.
Lummi - N. Williams 1, Sara Brady 9,
Marcy Williams, Amanda Cultee 6, Merisa
Jones 8, Rikkole Edwards 8, Lorisa Cultee 9,
CASINO
FG - 18-50; FT'- 13-27.
Sprague-Harrington 16 47
Mary M. Knight 7 tl
Sprague-Harrington - Mielke
18, Sweet, Roberts,
berger, Larimer 8, Hayes 0, K.
Miller 2, Soderberg, J. Lowman 3.
FG - 30-69; FT - 5-11.
Mary M. Knight - Cassy Will
Kingery 3, Shareese 8,
6, Shelby Adsero 10,
rissa Connors, Teryssa ToppanO
Kingery, Heather Leggett.
FG - 13-43; FT- 7-16.
Curlew 18
Mary M, Knight 4
Curlew - Somday 5, Kirkendal
6, Grumbach 12, Barkley 5,
4, N, Miller 16, Wilson 8.
FG - 30-85; FT - 11-18.
Mary M. Knit;
Kingery 2, Shareese Willey 8,
4, Amanda Vera 4,
sa Toppano 1, Melissa Kingery
Leggett 2, Alicea Scott 7.
FG - 13-40; FT - 7-13.
BOYS
Mary M. Knight 7
LaCrosse-Washtucna 14
Mary M. Knight - Chad
(Please turn to page
BOyS one win away
(Continued from page 23.) mind shootin' from. And he hit it nedy it was sort of the reverse -
mentioned Mister Trondsen.
"I think Corey was six for seven
or something like that the first
half," says Jensen, referring to
those three-pointers. "He got into
a little rhythm where it was pretty
much money for about a half.
"And that allowed us to have
some opportunities to do things
inside because they were so con-
scious of him the second half. That
opened up a lot of things inside for
US."
THE CLIMBERS HAD a ten-
point lead in the first half and
then, after Kennedy cut it to four
by the half, got it back up to just
shy of double digits in the second
half.
"And then we had a couple mis-
handles and they ended up coming
back," says Coach. "They took the
lead early in the fourth quarter.
And then we came back and had
about a four-point lead. And we
ran off some clock, and naturally
they were trying to foul. And we
lost a pass and they went down
and scored to tie it in the last min-
ute - I'd say with between 15 and
20 seconds letL"
ENTER GO-TO GUY Curbs,
who up to that point had been
double-teamed into ll-point pro-
duction roughly half of his near-
league-leading scoring average.
But first he had to get the ball
in his hands - and that process too
was memorable, assures Jensen.
"Two or three kids made some
really nice decisions and some
good plays on it," he says, taking
you back to those final seconds.
"We ran a little entry and kicked
the ball down to Alex Olson, who
had a fairly open shot. But a guy
was runnin' at him, and he shot-
faked. And the kid got up in the air
and Alex made a real hard dribble
and then saw Curtis by himself
and kicked it up to him.
"Curtis had stepped up at the
top of the circle - probably off the
edge of the free-throw lane, at the
three-point line."
Right in the 6-4 senior's comfort
zone?
"Yeah," says Jensen, grinning.
"One of those spots that ha doesn't
with about two seconds left..."
UNFORGETTABLE HIGH, was
it? For players and coaches alike,
assures Jensen.
"We've had some pretty decent
years," says the veteran coach.
"I mean, we've won 14, 15 games
where we haven't gotten into this
position.
"And this group of kids hadn't
even played in a playoff game to
speak of, you know, until the oth-
er night.
"So it was a terrific way to start.
You betcha." He grins.
"You know, they will have all
these memories. And those are
the kind that you remember a life-
time..."
AS FOR THE one that got
away - Saturday night's winner-
to-state nailbiter with Port Ange-
les - it found the Climbers falling
prey to a reversal of fortune, as it
were. And in the offing was no less
than their first state berth in fully
30 years.
"Yeah, it was almost a reversal,"
says Jensen, comparing it with
Thursday's game. "It seemed like
every loose ball or every tipped
ball ended up in Port Angeles'
hands. And the night with Ken-
which was sort of strange, because
if you looked at the two teams
quickness-wise Kennedy looked a
lot quicker.
"And we were quicker to the
ball that night, and I can remem-
ber two or three plays where kids
'Those are
the kind that
you remember
a LIFETIME:
SENIOR DEREK RANNEY
dives for one Saturday.
came from outta nowhere to come
up with balls. And then it sorta got
reversed on us on Saturday night.
"I can remember two or three
balls that two kids had their hands
on - you know, one from each team
- and they ended up with almost
every one of those."
WHAT HURT perhaps even
more, though, says Jensen, was
his Climbers' inability to take ad-
vantage of the Roughriders' defen-
sive concession, as it were.
"We really didn't make 'em pay
for pressing us," he says. "And I've
talked to a couple of the kids since
then, and I'm gonna talk to 'em to-
night a little bit - I think because
we were concerned about gettin'
into gym rat situation - or just
flyin' up and down. And we didn't
wanna do that with 'era. And so we
emphasized that a lot - both for
Kennedy and Port Angeles.
"Cuz last year Port Angeles just
went up and down the floor on us
- especially here. And I think that,
because of that and the way we pre-
sented it maybe, there was a mis-
understanding of what we wanted
against their press. Because I felt,
especially in the first half, there
vere about half a dozen times
where we had numbers - where we
were maybe two on one or three on
two - and we sorta pulled the ball
off. And I'm not sure that's what
we really wanted t' do."
BE SO CONSERVATIVE? ...... YOU BE THE JUDGE: The ref called him for a foul
"Exactly," says Jensen. "We Climber junior Alex bison (22) made this picture.
were maybe too conservative shot block in Saturday's loss to Port Angeles.
in that aspect of it. Because we
'70 cagers finally to°ffensivePressing'W°uldliket°makethempayf°r"BecaUSego get ateamcouple-threetheagainstbest thingaeasypressfOrbas.anis Owls' maiden sta
kets. Cuz all of a sudden then the Owl hoopdom's historic state Shelby Landsem 8.
get some revenge
By CHARLES GAY
Yes, Terry Gregg did smile
when he heard that Shelton's
Highclimbers had beaten John F.
Kennedy on a last-seconds ,bomb
by Curtis Trondsen in a district
playoff game last week.
Hearing the news by phone from
his son Bryan took Gregg back 37
years to a night on which JFK beat
his Climbers in a playoff game in
his first year as Shelton's coach. It
was a double-overtime nightmare
in which an average guard for the
Lancers went unconscious for 41
points in JFK's 83-74 victory.
. ,,
It flashed right back to me,
Gregg said this week. "There's
some justice."
The senior-laden 1969-1970
team was not only his first but
one of his favorites and most tal-
ented. It was packed with multi-
sport stars. Senior Mike Sparks,
a cat-quick 6-1 forward who could
jump out of the gym, is still the
only Shelton hoopster in modern
times to land a Division I-A schol-
arship. He went to the University
of Washington after leading the
Climbers in scoring that year.
Just behind Sparks in the scor-
ing column was 5-9 senior guard
Jim Corey, who once pitched 12
innings of an SHS baseball game
and won it with a triple in the bot-
tom of the 12th. His cousin, 5-8
senior guard Rusty Corey, was
a long-range bomber before the
day of the three-point shot. When
Rusty Corey died a few years ago,
Gregg called him "the straw that
stirred that team."
The squad had a 6-2 senior cen-
ter, Brad Jones, who had trans-
ferred in that year. Jones, also an
all-star baseball pitcher, battled
6-6 and 6-7 giants to a standstill
all year in the Olympic League.
Starting at the other forward was
6-0 junior Bob Turner, one of the
finest defensive players Gregg
has coached, who led the team
in shooting percentage. He had
broad-jumped 19-41/2 when he was
15 years old and already set the
Highclimber 18-hole golf record of
one-under 71.
First off the bench were 5-10
senior forward Randy Lewis and
5-7 junior guard Kevin Dorcy.
Lewis, one of the. finest jumpers
in Shelton track-and-field history,
rebounded like he was 6-4. Dorcy
was a track star in junior high who
excelled in baseball in high school.
All three guards were amazingly
quick and stole the ball and ran
the fast break like pros.
"The team played with such
heart," Gregg said of his height-
rhallenged charges that went 14-
5 overall and 11-3 in league. They
lost twice to nonleague Elma, who
won the state A title that year with
a future NBA player named Rod
Derline. The league losses were
to Central Kitsap, the defending
state AA champ, a monster Bain-
bridge team and West Bremerton.
The Climbers entered the Ken-
nedy game in a neutral Puyallup
gym in 1970 needing to win to
make regionals. A kid named Dave
Houk was their undoing. Every-
thing he threw up seemed to go in.
Against the best defensive team
in a strong Olympic League, Houk
and the Lancers shot 58 percent.
Gregg remembers Houk dribbling
the ball over the half-court line
several times, taking a few steps
and tossing it up. And in.
First Rusty Corey guarded
Houk, then Turner, then Dorcy.
"Even Jimmy (Corey) had a turn
on him," Gregg recalled. No one
could cool him off.
Despite Houk having the game
of his life on that very night, the
Climbers scrapped to a 63-63 tie
at the end of regulation. Then they
had the lead and the ball with 20
seconds to go in the first overtime
only to lose possession and have
JFK tie it 72-72. The second over-
time was a disaster for SHS after it
got behind early and was forced to
(Please turn to page 25.)
Page 24 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 1, 2007
pressing team's mental attitude
changes a little bit, and they're
more worried about giving up lay-
ups.
"And I thought there were may-
be three or four possessions in the
first half that we coulda done that.
And we didn't."
THE REFS GOT more than a
little flak from the Climber side of
the gym, as it happens, during the
fateful final minutes of Saturday's
game, when the Roughriders got
one call after another amid a span
that saw them turn an eight-point
deficit into a four-point lead a's the
clock ticked down under a minute
and the Climbers' fate was all but
sealed.
But was the officiating actually
to blame?
"I felt like it was sort of inter-
esting," hedges Coach Jensen.
"Because we the three-man me-
chanics, you had three guys - and
two of 'em were sorta calling the
game one way and one of 'era was
callin' it different, I thought.
'rhere was one guy that was
callin' a lot of hand checks and
over-the-backs - and fairly close.
And then the other two guys were
lettin' them really play.
"AND, UNFORTUNATELY,
I felt like in the fourth quarter,
with the way they rotate, the guy
that was underneath Port Ange-
les' basket called a couple of hand
checks on us and a couple o' reach-
es. And then he rotated out, so he
was way down the floor when we
were tryin' to bring the ball up the
floor. And we had the two guys
that were lettin' us play a little bit
more - which probably didn't play
into us. You know?
"And I'm not sayin' it was all
the officiating. I just think that
three guys were callin' the game,
and two of 'em were callin' it the
one way and the other guy was
callin' it a little different. And it
was tough to adjust."
P.A. REALLY FAST, was it?
Not particularly, says Jensen.
"We turned the ball over up
high, he reminds. "You know,
(Please turn to page 25.)
experience yielded a come-from-
behind win tbr the girls and plenty
of memories all the same for the
two-and-out boys last week in Ya-
kima.
Mary M. Knight's girls roared
from behind to beat Lummi 51-
49 in their opener but then fell
out by way of successive losses to
Sprague-Harrington (34-71) and
top-ranked Curlew (36-83). Their
boy counterparts - like them in
their first all-Washington hoop
donnybrook in MMK history - fell
28-56 to LaCrosse-Washtucna and
44-65 to Entiat.
GIRLS
Mary M. Knight 8 20 36 51
Lumml 11 32 45 49
Mary M. Knight - Cassy Willey 4, Kelsey
Kingery, Shareese Willey 15, Alicea Scott 15,
Shelby Adsero 2, Amanda Vera 4, Teryssa
Toppano 9, Melissa Kingery, Heather Leggett
2.
FG - 18-69; FT - 13-25.
Lummi - N. Williams 1, Sara Brady 9,
Marcy Williams, Amanda Cultee 6, Merisa
Jones 8, Rikkole Edwards 8, Lorisa Cultee 9,
CASINO
FG - 18-50; FT'- 13-27.
Sprague-Harrington 16 47
Mary M. Knight 7 tl
Sprague-Harrington - Mielke
18, Sweet, Roberts,
berger, Larimer 8, Hayes 0, K.
Miller 2, Soderberg, J. Lowman 3.
FG - 30-69; FT - 5-11.
Mary M. Knight - Cassy Will
Kingery 3, Shareese 8,
6, Shelby Adsero 10,
rissa Connors, Teryssa ToppanO
Kingery, Heather Leggett.
FG - 13-43; FT- 7-16.
Curlew 18
Mary M, Knight 4
Curlew - Somday 5, Kirkendal
6, Grumbach 12, Barkley 5,
4, N, Miller 16, Wilson 8.
FG - 30-85; FT - 11-18.
Mary M. Knit;
Kingery 2, Shareese Willey 8,
4, Amanda Vera 4,
sa Toppano 1, Melissa Kingery
Leggett 2, Alicea Scott 7.
FG - 13-40; FT - 7-13.
BOYS
Mary M. Knight 7
LaCrosse-Washtucna 14
Mary M. Knight - Chad
(Please turn to page