Lady Lakers dribble their way to second place at nationals
By Robert Morgan | Published Sunday, August 10, 2008
Another long, eventful and successful select basketball season came to an end for the Lady Lakers 18 and under team. The group traveled to California last week to compete against some of the top teams in the country in two national tournaments.
The Lady Lakers won five straight games at the Pacific Coast Nationals Shootout in the Laguna Beach area to reach the championship game. They took on the Oregon Elite in the title bout that went down to the final second.
A 32-27 halftime lead was not enough for the Texas girls. They went cold offensively in the second half before falling short 49-46. The locals missed three three-point shots attempt in the final 10 seconds before settling for second place.
The Lady Lakers were led by Most Valuable Player Mitzi Miller, a Texas Woman's University signee. Junior Katlyn Mary and senior Checa Simon (Collin County College) were also named to the all-tournament team.
It was another successful trip to the West Coast for the basketball team as it took third place last year. This year, however, the Lady Lakers have several challenges to get to the title game.
Colleen Redmond, a senior for Northwest who will play at LeTourneau next fall, led the team defensively with 11 steals and four charges in the tournament. Sarah Workman, Olivia Long, Mason Smart, Lauren Chessmore, Karli Mellegard and Corrie Forcier also delivered on separate occasions to fight off the competition.
The road to the championship game included wins over JSERRA (51-36), Tuscan Miracle (78-47) and Superflo (67-60). The games then moved to San Diego where the Lady Lakers defeated teams from Colorado, Alaska and Canada.
The Lady Lakers wrapped up play in the MSNM Nationals against 98 other teams from across the country as well as Canada. The group finished fourth in the silver division.
All seven seniors signed national letters of intent to play college basketball next year, and the last 19 seniors of the last three years have gone on to the next level. Maddison Kinsey (Northwest, Palm Beach, Florida), Casey Pool (Texas Woman's University), Chrisan Petrovanie (Lamar University) and Angeleena Young (Austin College).
The Lady Lakers currently have two spots open for its short fall season and next spring and summer's team. If interested in a tryout e-mail the team at team@ladylakers.com or visit http://www.ladylakers.com
