Reflecting on Pele Gianotti's dream season in Oregon

Riddle High School freshman Pele Gianotti had a season most high school basketball players can only dream about.

She was her league's most valuable player, led her team to a fourth place finish at the state tournament and blew away the state's freshman scoring record of 515 by scoring 696 points. For the season, she averaged 24.9 points and 13 rebounds per game and hit 40 percent of her 3-point shots.

Despite being the team's ball girl as an eighth grader only one year ago, her coach says he wasn't really surprised by his 6-foot wing's success.

"She has a tremendous work ethic, a passion for basketball and ice in her veins," said Casey O'Toole, who guided the Irish to a 27-3 record. "Even if she didn't play basketball, she would be a successful person - a testament to being raised right."

Following the Riddle's fourth-place showing at the State 2A tournament on March 5, Gianotti was back in the gym on March 7 working out.

Though she was double- and triple-teamed nearly every game, her all-around game enabled her to be successful with or without the ball. In December, she scored 38 points against North Douglas and in the final game at state, she scored 36 and also grabbed 17 rebounds.

"We try to isolate her on one side and she decides where to take advantage of the defense," said O'Toole, who noted that Pele was a 76-percent shooter from the foul line (in her final game of the season, she connected on 18 of 25 from the foul line).

Gianotti's single-season 696 point total ranks seventh all-time among Oregon girls with the single season record belonging to Gaston's Sheri VanLoo (851) during the 1979-1980 season. Career-wise, Philomath's Trisha Stevens scored 2,483 points, 1984-87. Stevens later starred for Stanford.

Gianotti's coach added, "Pele stepped into a veteran team that returned three starters and made it work. She knows how to spread the wealth. She is very humble."

O'Toole said Gianotti not only has been received by her teammates, but the school's student body as well. Only a freshman, she has been elected as Associate Student Body president for the 2011-12 school year. She is also a straight-A student.

But before her sophomore season begins, she will have played another AAU season with a girls travel team out of Spokane, Wash.

"She loves basketball and is very dedicated," said O'Toole. "She is only going to get better."

Oregon's All-Time Single-Season Top scorers:

1. 851 = Sheri Van Loo, Gaston High, 1979-80
2. 806 = Sheri Van Loo, Gaston High, 1978-79
3. 805 = Shoni Schimmel, Franklin/Portland, 2009-2010
4. 714 = Jenny Mowe, Powers High, 1998-99
5. 707 = Trisha Stevens, Philomath High, 1988-89
6. 700 = Jenny Baldwin, St. Helens High, 1990-91
7. 696 = PELE GIANOTTI, RIDDLE, 2010-2011

OAK HILL-BOUND TEBBUTT AGAIN NAMED BOYS 3A PLAYER OF YEAR
Junior Jordan Tebbutt was named Oregon's 3A Player of the Year for the second time after leading Horizon Christian/Tualatin to its second-straight 3A State title.

Sheridan leader Bob Bennett was named Coach of the Year after leading the Spartans to a 22-8 record and a third-place finish at State.

Tebbutt, a 6-5 junior guard, led the Hawks to a 27-4 record.

Tebbutt said he is considering UCLA, Washington, Kansas, USC, Virginia, Arizona, Arizona State, Gonzaga, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Kentucky and others. But before he goes off to college, he will play his senior year at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

Also named to the first team were Dayton's Travis Bernards and A.J. Hedgecock, Sheridan's Tre Hale-Edmerson and Blanchet Catholic/Salem senior Nick Cantonwine.

ALOHA BOYS BASKETBALL COACH STEPS DOWN
Citing a need to "take a break," Aloha (Beaverton) boys basketball coach Thomas Bendt has resigned after four seasons.

Bendt went 28-70 in four seasons, including 5-20 this season. A dozen of the losses were results of a sanction for using an ineligible player. Prior to coaching at Aloha, Bendt coached for 15 years in South Dakota.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," Bendt told The Oregonian newspaper. "I'm kind of burned out on the year-round thing right now."

TOP PERFORMANCES AROUND OREGON IN THE LAST WEEK
* North Medford (6A) beat Marist's Stanford-bound Nyree White twice, 3-1 and 7-1, in a nonleague softball doubleheader. White has been named Oregon 4A Player of the Year twice in leading Marist/Eugene to a pair of state titles. She is a senior and daughter of Oregon softball coach Mike White.

* Wyatt Whitten pitched two-hit shutout ball for four innings and hit a grand slam as Pendleton defeated Baker, 13-1 in a nonleague baseball game.

* Redmond treated perennial 5A power Crater/Central Point rudely as it moved up to 6A. The Lady Panthers collected 25 base hits in winning 11-2 and 7-6 as seniors Cheyenne Friend and Portland State-bound Aubrey Nitschelm hit long home runs.

TRACK INFORMATION
St. Mary's (Medford) Abby Steinsiek has signed to attend Elon University on a track scholarship. The multi-sport athlete also played soccer and basketball at St. Mary's, but track is her top sport. She placed second in the 400 meters and fifth in the 200 at last year's state 2A meet. She also anchored the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams, the latter a meet record 4 minutes, 9.2 seconds. She has a best of 58.3 in the 400.

* Reedsport junior Lindsey Wright won four events in the Siuslaw Icebreaker meet held recently in Florence. Wright won the 100 (13.75), long jump (17 feet), high jump (5 feet) and pole vault (10 feet).

* Arthur Delaney of Barlow (Gresham) opened his outdoor track season with some impressive early-season times winning the 100 (10.94) and 200 (21.85) in a four-team meet at Oregon City. Delaney, a senior, also won the long jump at 21-11.5.