By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
MUNCIE, Ind. – The third annual T-Mobile Invitational basketball tournament reached historic proportions here this week at Ball State University.
First of all, it marked the initial time that Indiana teams were allowed to play against opponents who were from more than 300 miles beyond Hoosier borders. That long-time travel restriction includes either playing on the road or hosting teams from over the mileage limit. The rule was waived for one time only by the sponsoring Indiana High School Athletic Association because it belongs to the co-sponsoring National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Secondly, it was the first time that a team from the host state won the championship – and it happened in both the boys and girls divisions.
The tone for a Hoosier sweep was set toward the close of Saturday’s opening welcome banquet when NFHS Chief Operating Officer Bob Gardner – a former IHSAA commissioner – threw out a challenge to Indianapolis Lawrence North and South Bend Washington by slyly mentioning the lack of a host-state champion during the first two tourneys, which were held in Washington and New Mexico.
Like the obedient players they are, Washington (11-0) captured the girls title with a hard-fought 64-55 victory over Bob Jones (Madison, Ala.), which now is 17-2. Then the Lawrence North boys (8-1) followed suit with an impressive 58-44 triumph over previously unbeaten South Atlanta (Atlanta, Ga.), which fell to 10-1.
The Washington Panthers, who should be ranked high nationally, received 26 points, six assists and four steals from the nation’s premier guard, 5-10 senior Skylar Diggins. The Notre Dame signee, who is the heart and soul of her team, told MaxPreps, “This is probably the biggest tourney that the Washington Panthers ever have been in. We were excited about the games. They were physical and I loved it. Spirits were high and emotions were high.”
First-year Washington coach Maurice Scott, who is Diggins’ stepfather, was quite pleased to beat two teams that potentially could be ranked among the nation’s top 25. However, he gave an ominous message to future opponents when he stressed, “They haven’t seen their best basketball yet.”
Bob Jones was led by University of Alabama-Birmingham recruits Jala Harris, a superb point guard who had 20 points, and 6-3 Jasmine Green, who pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds. Bob Jones had beaten Gentry (Indianola, Miss.), 47-18, in the first round. Gentry entered the season with an 80-game winning streak, but left the tourney with a 9-4 record.
Washington earlier had beaten tough University (Newark, N.J.), 75-73, in one of the best girls games ever witnessed by this writer. Diggins sparkled with 31 points, seven assists and five steals, but she fouled out with 3:14 to play and the score knotted at 68. The Panthers already had lost their 6-3 center, Jasmine Watson, who fouled out with 4:38 remaining.
Diggins showed her great leadership when she quickly huddled her teammates together. “I told them three things,” she revealed. “You’ve got to rebound, play defense and you’ve got to believe. I was kind of hyperventilating, but I knew my teammates had to step up. In four years the University defense is probably the hardest we ever faced (the Panthers made 34 turnovers).”
Coach Scott called the impromptu huddle “huge. It made the kids calm. Then she became a big cheerleader on the bench.”
University (2-2) took a 73-72 lead with 1:23 left on two free throws by 6-2 junior superstar Laurin Mincy, who had 35 points and seven steals despite battling stomach flu during the week. However, Raven Anderson and Amber Thompson both missed a pair of free throws (the team missed 20 overall), paving the way for three free throws by 5-9 senior Rakeesha Lane over the final 15 seconds to give the Panthers a scintillating 75-73 victory.
Lane’s winning free throws, which came with just 4.5 seconds left, were courtesy of 5-5 freshman Shareita Patton, who stole the ball with the score deadlocked at 73. After the game ended, Patton “ran into the locker room and gave the ball to Lane,” coach Scott related.
University coach Felicia Oliver was quite impressed with Diggins, who “has that European style of game. She is very poised and a great leader. She took what the defense gave her. We gave her all the respect – we gave her the lane and she took advantage of it. It’s just wonderful watching her play.”
Oliver’s own star, Mincy, also had 19 points and six assists in the third-place game, a 78-48 victory over Gentry. St. John’s recruit Nadirah McKenith was high with 25 points.
“She rises to the occasion,” Oliver said of Mincy. “She’s our leader. She’s around 13 or 14 in her class and a student of the game. She’s got a pretty pull-up jumper. She has NBA range. She can put it on the floor at 6-foot and take it to the basket. She always has that defensive intensity. Skylar is trying to recruit her for Notre Dame.”
Mincy isn’t the only one Diggins hopes will become a future Notre Dame teammate. She is hot on the trail of superstar Kelsey Bone, a 6-5 senior from Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas). They played together on the USA Junior team and she calls Bone “my best friend. We talk every day.”
Meanwhile, Lawrence North used its height and depth to stifle the nation’s No. 1 player, 6-9, 234-pound Derrick Favors in the tourney’s finale. Favors had totally dominated Duncanville (Texas) during a first-round 67-53 victory with 30 points, a tourney-record 21 rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes. Several times he went through double and triple teams to get layups, had several spectacular dunks, brought the ball down court against a press (going behind his back on some dribbles) and banked in a long jumper.
The effort prompted Duncanville coach Phil McNeely to point out that Favors “is stronger than most high school kids. He’s got the strength to go with his size. Most high school kids are tall and skinny. He can run the floor and is a really gifted athlete, too.”
His performance was so impressive that Lawrence North coach Jack Keefer claimed he would spot South Atlanta 30 points and 20 rebounds if Favors would sit out the title game. The wily Keefer, however, summoned up an old defense he had used over the years against powerful low-post players and he had the personnel to make it work magnificently.
Stephan VanTreese, a 6-9 Louisville recruit, had the primary assignment against Favors, but he also got back-side help and “we would drop one guard down (if he got the ball),” Keefer explained. “He really had to deal with three people. He had his work cut out for him.”
The end result is that the super-talented Favors was held to 10 points, 12 rebounds and was able to play only 22 minutes due to foul trouble.
Nine players scored for Lawrence North, led by 6-0 senior guard Alanzo Bass with 15 points. He drilled two key 3-pointers during a Wildcat run which put them ahead to stay in the second quarter. “He’s starting to take charge,” Keefer said happily. “He’s the guy we needed and he really filled that role well.
“I’m just happy the IHSAA let us get involved. T-Mobile treats you so well. This is the best thing I’ve ever been to.”
Lawrence North had a huge 54-28 rebound advantage. Ryan Taylor, a 6-5 sophomore and a star of the future, set the pace with 15. The 6-9 VanTreese had 13 and 6-9 junior Dominique Ferguson had 11. The Wildcats – probably the tallest team in the country from players 1-to-12 – beat the boards unmercifully and are one of the most powerful rebounding teams this writer ever has seen.
South Atlanta coach Michael Reddick was gracious in defeat. He told MaxPreps, “They are extremely physical and we didn’t respond to the challenge today. Their offense is run to get offensive rebounds. They are a very smart team. I never had a team out-rebounded like this. They collapsed a lot on us and our shooters never got untracked.”
Favors, who rarely ever has been stifled in his career, also handled the loss well. When the players and coaches congratulated each other after the game, coach Keefer’s fifth-grade son, Jake, also went through the line. Favors rubbed the little guy’s curly head and asked good naturedly, “What’s the matter? They wouldn’t let you suit up tonight?”
An excited Jake rushed back to his mother, Jan Keefer, and exclaimed, “Mom, he thinks I’m a player.” And a player he is – definitely a point guard of the future for his dad.
Lawrence North had beaten Garfield (Seattle, Wash.), 61-37, in the first round behind Ferguson’s 18 points and another dominating night on the boards (50-23). But Garfield coach Ed Haskins learned just one hour before game time that super 6-5 sophomore point guard Tony Wroten again had been declared ineligible by the Seattle School District – and actually banned from attending classes – due to an on-going residency feud and the court battle surrounding it.
However, the next day – this time one-half hour before the game – Haskins learned that Wroten could play in the third-place game against Duncanville. Wroten shot just 7-of-24 from the field, but he contributed a game-high 19 points along with eight rebounds, six assists and six steals as Garfield staged a miraculous comeback for a 57-56 victory on a 3-pointer by 6-2 senior De’Andre Taylor with 11.6 seconds left.
“It made me stronger,” Wroten said of his on-going court case, which should be decided later in January. “They tried to kick me out of there. What are they going to say now? I’ve been practicing, but I hadn’t played a game all year.”
The tournament closed with an awards banquet during which Mike Belcher, vice president of marketing for T-Mobile, and Bob Kanaby, executive director of the NFHS, gave out medals and banners to each team. Then Belcher presented Sportsmanship Awards to the Garfield boys and University girls.
T-Mobile also presented a flat-screen TV to the Muncie Boys and Girls Club, which was the object of this year’s Huddle Up Community Service Program earlier in the week.
All eight games were televised by CBS College Sports Television. A one-hour documentary is being put together by Kyle Meek for the T-Mobile Showcase, which will air on the CBS Network on Jan. 18 prior to the AFC championship football telecast.
