On the national stage Ursuline Academy is a team that often upsets teams with more talent up and down its roster because of the uncanny ability of their best player, Elena Delle Donne, who just happens to be the No. 1 player in the country. Kizer too is one of the nation’s elite and the Maryland-bound senior holds her team’s fate in her two powerful hands. Potomac’s upset run was derailed Thursday night in the semifinals but rest assure this will not be the only upset between now and mid-March.

Championship Watch
Alabama has only its class A champions crowned with Spring Garden High School’s (Spring Garden, Ala.) 61-44 win Wednesday over McIntosh High School (McIntosh, Ala.) The larger school classification will be decided this weekend at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center.

In Nevada, Bishop Gorman High School (Las Vegas, Nev.) defeated Reno High School (Reno, Nev.) 65-48 for the 4A championship. In the 3A classification, Yerington High School (Yerington, Nev.) cruised to a 46-30 victory over Truckee High School (Truckee, Calif.) Nevada is rare in that teams from California play within their state’s athletic association. Truckee, Calif., is an eastern California border town just northwest of Lake Tahoe and just 30 miles southwest on Interstate-80 from Reno, Nev. This same scenario occurred in the 2A championship with Needles High School (Needles, Calif.) defeated Lincoln County High School (Panaca, Nev.) 63-39. Needles is a southern California border town located east of Los Angeles off of Interstate-40 near both the Arizona and Nevada borders. The city is 117 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nev., 163 miles northwest of Phoenix, Ariz., and a 208 miles east of Los Angeles, Calif. In the A classification Owyhee High School (Owyhee, Nev.) beat Mountain View Christian School (Las Vegas, Nev.) 42-38.

North Montgomery’s Ashley Buis was
named The Paper’s Player of the Year.
Photo by Lori Poteet, courtesy of The Paper
of Montgomery County.

NOTES
Destini Hughes, the senior point guard for Kennedale High School (Kennedale, Tex.) has put up tremendous numbers with 22.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.0 steals, 5.5 assists and 1.0 block per game. Kennedale is in the Texas 3A final four this weekend and Hughes could be the first player in state history to win a state championship in two different classifications. Hughes won a 4A championship with Waxahachie High School (Waxahachie, Tex.) in 2006 before transferring to Kennedale where her father, Vance Hughes, is the head coach. Hughes is the No. 17 ranked player in the country according to HoopGurlz.com and a 2008 McDonald’s All-American who is headed to LSU next year. …Candace Sykes, the No. 58 ranked senior in the country was named to the Quad City Times (Illinois) 2A All-State first team. The 5-foot-10 guard from Momence High School (Momence, Ill.) will play next season at Alabama. …Ashley Buis, a senior guard for North Montgomery High School (Crawfordsville, Ind.) was named The Paper’s Player of the Year for the third straight year. Buis also set the North Montgomery all-time scoring record with 1,370 points including 332 this season. Her team was knocked out of the playoffs in the sectionals by Lebanon. Buis will play next season at Vincennes University (Vincennes, Ind.), the oldest public college in the state. …Hayley Henderson, the junior point guard for Palo Verde High School (Las Vegas, Nev.) was named to the All-Northwest Conference first team. She averaged 15.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. She was also an honorable mention selection for the Sporting News All-American team. To top that off she maintains a 4.055 grade point average taking honors classes. …Candace Wood, the senior guard for Victory Christian School (Charlotte, N.C.), was selected to the NCISAA 2A all-state first team by leading her team to its second straight class 2A state title and the fourth in her career. …Kristi Kingma, a 5-11 guard for Jackson High School (Mill Creek, Wash.), scored a career high 43 points in Thursday’s state playoff game against Skyview (Vancouver, Wash.) breaking Joyce Walker’s 28 year old record of 40 points. Kingma is staying close to home for college and will play for Washington next season.

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Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com.

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