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Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 1, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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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