Inside the Numbers: Whitney Creech perfects the Euro step

The giant step to the top of Kentucky's scoring list by Jenkins (Ky.) freshman Whitney Creech wasn't by accident.

Her coach Ashley Addington said it was largely keyed by her development of something called the Euro step, a move brought to the NBA by Sarunas Marciullonis, made famous by the Spurs' Manu Ginobili (see video below) and refined over the summer by Creech.

The 5-foot-8 guard is the No. 1 scorer in Kentucky according to the MaxPreps list with an average of 30.2. The next highest on the list is Janssen Starks (Murray) at 25.7. That's a significant gap. Creech is also the No. 22 scorer in the country. 

"This year Whitney developed the Euro Step she worked on all summer and had it perfected by the beginning of the season," Addington said. "At first referees would call a travel every time, then they would realize that a female, let alone a 14-year-old girl, could actually make that move."

She made plenty of moves in the 2012-13 season, scoring at least 20 in all but three of her team's 25 games, with highs of 52, 49 and 40. Those are big numbers from a kid who comes from a town of just 2,500.

In a 72-67 win over Hazard on Jan. 26, Creech made 20 of 39 shots and 12 of 19 free throws. Remarkably she didn't hit a single three-pointer. In fact, unlike most high-scoring guards, Creech wasn't a big long-range threat with just 16 threes out of 85 attempts this season.

Despite not towering over her opponents, she was also a fine rebounder at 7.4 per game. She had 10 against Hazard to go along with six steals and three assists.

Creech, who also averaged 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocks, set school records for points in a year (754), a single game (52) and one half (37) as well as blocked shots in a season (38). She became the youngest player in school history to score 1,500 career points.

She had one stretch of games with 34, 52, 39, 35, 49, 37 and 30 points.

"I, too, found myself in awe of things she would do in games and practices," Addington said. "I foresee great things for our team in the next three years with Whitney at the helm. and there is no limit to where she can take us."

Jenkins finished only 8-19 but with such a young team figures to get better. Especially with Creech leading the way.

"Whitney has proven herself to be one of the top female basketball players in our region, maybe even the state," Addington said. "Naysayers will use our scheduling as a reason for her unbelievable statistics, but her best and top scoring games came from the best competition we played."

Not only was Creech fun to watch because of how many points she put up, her coach said, but also because of the way she did it.

"If you came to see Whitney play one time, you would walk away remembering something spectacular she did in that game," Addington said.



Inside the Numbers is a weekly profile highlighting players on our MaxPreps leaderboards. Thank you coaches and teams for supplying us your invaluable statistics at MaxPreps.com. Please contact Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com with a potential Inside the Numbers profile.