PORT ANGELES — With one quarter left in a winner-to-regional game, it was time for the big reveal.
It was time for Port Angeles’ 6-foot-1 post Nizhoni Wheeler to move over and play point guard, which she did for most of the fourth quarter of the Roughriders’ 39-34 victory over River Ridge.
“It’s fun,” Wheeler said. “It’s not my usual spot, but it’s kind of fun. I like playing it sometimes.”
Wheeler at point guard wasn’t Port Angeles’ best-kept secret, but postseason opponents would have had to watch a lot of film — or get lucky and watch the correct film — to be prepared for the tactic.
“It wasn’t the first time she played point. She knows that it was in our back pocket,” Port Angeles girls basketball coach Michael Poindexter said.
“She was quite delighted to do it.”
Wheeler, a junior, wasn’t everything to the Riders this season, but she was all sorts of things.
She led the team in scoring (10.9 per game), rebounding (8.4) and blocked shots (2.6), was second in assists (2.5) and third in steals (2.0).
Wheeler was voted Olympic League 2A co-MVP, and she has been selected as the All-Peninsula Girls Basketball MVP by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
“I think the multidimensional game that she has is what impresses me most,” Poindexter said.
“You look at her and see a 6-1 kid who can score in the post. But she’s also effective in the high post, she’s the best passer on the team, she makes our press break go.
“She’s willing to do what it takes for us to win, whatever role we need her to have.”
Against River Ridge, she was needed as a point guard.
In the first meeting with North Kitsap, Wheeler was needed to bail out the Riders and also put them on her back.
She hit two 3-pointers as the shot clock expired, including one with less than a minute left in the game that turned a one-point lead into four points. In the second half of that 37-30 win, Wheeler scored 15 of Port Angeles’ 16 second-half points.
In the home win over Kingston, the Riders needed a hero.
The score tied and less than 10 seconds remaining when Wheeler received a pass on the perimeter and found her sister Cheyenne underneath the hoop. Cheyenne’s shot was blocked, and then the rebound was knocked away from her.
Nizhoni Wheeler wasn’t the closest player to the loose ball — she was standing behind the free-throw line when the shot was blocked — but she was the one who made the most effort to chase it down. She picked it up and quickly laid it off the backboard and into the hoop right before the buzzer.
“No one else was going for it. I was thinking, ‘Just go for the ball,’” Nizhoni Wheeler said.
“I just threw up a shot and I was really surprised that I made it.”
All the passing, dribbling and long-distance shooting doesn’t mean Wheeler shies away from the post.
“That’s where most of her points come from,” Poindexter said. “She can [score in the post], but that’s not what defines her.
“She’s not just one-dimensional under the hoop.”
And she’s not only an offensive player. Wheeler is just as important to Port Angeles on the defensive end.
“Defensively, in our zone, she has great vision,” Poindexter said.
“She just understands the game, sees what’s out in front of her well, communicates with her teammates.”
Poindexter said shot blocking isn’t part of the Riders’ defense, but Wheeler has the green light.
And it’s one of her favorite parts of the game. She blocked 51 shots in 20 regular-season games.
“I just like the adrenaline I get from when I block a shot,” Wheeler said.
But she was able to resist going for blocks to avoid fouling out.
“She adjusted to officiating better,” Poindexter said.
“When she did get in foul trouble, she showed a huge amount of discipline. It’s a big reason we beat Black Hills. It paid off against Kingston.
“A big, mature step for her was adjusting to the foul situation.”
Wheeler was instructed not to go for blocks when she had four fouls, but the ghosts of her earlier blocks loomed large.
“If I’m in foul trouble then my presence still scares them a little, it still makes their shot different, I guess,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said she also matured in how she dealt with her own mistakes.
“I just didn’t dwell on not making mistakes, and I just kind of bounced back faster,” she said.
“I just flushed it down the toilet and forgot about it.”
Poindexter said that Wheeler made huge strides between her sophomore and junior seasons.
“This year, I thought she grew, improved her game pretty significantly over sophomore year,” Poindexter said.
“All the components of her game were there. She just put it together in a way that was confident, skilled.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
