STATE REGIONAL BASKETBALL: Freshmen proving pivotal to Peninsula teams

TACOMA — A bumper crop of freshman basketball players has borne fruit in the form of state regional round girls basketball berths for North Olympic Peninsula teams.

Neah Bay (21-2) and Port Angeles (20-4) each play multiple freshmen and these teams have already clinched appearances at their respective Class 1B and 2A state tournaments next week — regardless of how regional round games go against No. 6 Selkirk (21-4) (2 p.m. at Rogers High School in Puyallup) and No. 5 Archbishop Murphy (21-2) (4 p.m. Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma) on Saturday.

The Roughriders have three talented freshman phenoms: point guard Millie Long, guard/forward Madison Cooke, and guard/forward Jaida Wood. Long starts, while Cooke and Wood provide bounce off the bench.

“What the freshmen come in with that has set them apart is an offensive confidence and skill level,” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said. “They are in the top half of the team in scoring, all three of them.”

Long leads the Riders with 12 points per game, is the team’s best shooter at 43 percent, its leading distributor at 2.79 assists per game and is a steals machine, averaging 3.95 per game.

“She has an innate gift for the deflection and steal,” Poindexter said. “She reminds us of [2016 PAHS grad] Maddie Boe defensively. And she has that scoring ability, a pretty good ability to take contact under the hoop and still score.”

She’s also coming off what Poindexter called her best game of the season.

“Millie has very, very high standards and feels she doesn’t meet them at times,” Poindexter said. “I said look, that White River game was a game that if you play like that in Yakima they are looking at you for the All-Tournament team. She had 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting, steals, assists, rebounds, floor leadership, it was a great game. It’s pretty special.”

Cooke and contact

Poindexter said Long and Cooke both blend the ability to score with a willingness to be unselfish.

“It’s a really nice blend and that’s true of Madi too, she values an assist just as much or more than her own points,” he said.

“One of her special qualities is her willingness to play with a physicality that high school girls don’t often have. She physically plays the game like a college woman would in terms of enjoying contact, not stopping when she gets contact, not complaining about contact ever.”

The pair excel in transition.

“Both Millie and Madi can get up and down the floor quickly,” he said. “[Madi] can motor and she’s playing some point guard now because she’s tough to guard in the open court. Madi is an offensive boarder, she a great read for the ball as an offensive rebounder.

“Her saves out of bounds are particularly impressive. She has the grace and the athleticism to get a loose ball back inbounds to one of our players better than any player I’ve had in a long time.”

At 5-foot-9, Wood is valued for her versatility and her ability to sell out to benefit the team.

“She can come out and play the wing if she needs to, she plays that four spot with Cheyenne [Wheeler] but can also play in the middle of our 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone like [posts] Devin [Edwards] and Aeverie [Politika],” Poindexter said. “And she’s willing to do anything that’s going to help the team that way in terms of playing any position she’s asked. She hasn’t had any problem or ego about that.

“What we like is her ability to score from the corners and the baseline short corner, and also to drive. She doesn’t have huge range, but she has 20-foot range. We like her ability from outside, she’s been particularly effective in zone offense this year.

“She has a willingness to get on the floor for loose balls and throw herself into melees. We had some rough games against Kingston and Olympic at the end of the regular season and she came out with a ton of bruises, got pretty beat up and kept her composure. I really like her loose ball effort/rebounding effort.”

Neah Bay

The Red Devils start three of their top seven freshman and head coach Tony McCaulley said he has been tempted to put four on the floor to open a game.

“They are such a talented group,” he said. “They all can shoot [3s], they all can rebound and they all play defense.”

Forward Courtney Swan leads the team in scoring with 11.5 points per game and can rebound on both ends of the floor (8.2 per game, 3.2 offensive). Swan also can give and take with an average of 2.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game.

She’s exploded for impressive individual performances, including a 30 point, 20-rebound game against Clallam Bay in the regular season, and averaged 22.3 points during Neah Bay’s three-game run to a Tri-District championship earlier this month.

Ruth Moss is that families’ next standout on the court, joining her sisters Cierra and Cherish, who are wrapping up their collegiate careers this season at Evergreen State College (as well as brothers Rob and Ryan). Moss has a sweet shooting touch (9.9 points per game), and a knack for nabbing rebounds (team-high 8.4 per game, including 3 on the offensive end).

Lalia Greene also has provided scoring — leading the team in points in wins over 1A Chimacum and Forks — and more rebounding than you would imagine for her slightly-built frame.

“She’s been playing really good all year for us,” McCaulley said. “She’s coming on with her shot, she hustles, she’s gritty. All 90 pounds of her, that is. She’s pretty light.”

Patience Swan and Jazzlyn Yallup also contribute to Neah Bay’s success.

Competitive Hoops

The common thread between these freshman is their participation with the Competitive Hoops program, a Port Angeles-based basketball training venture whose signature pupils are the Olympic Avalanche AAU travel teams headed up by these Port Angeles and Neah Bay freshmen.

Competitive Hoops was founded by former Port Angeles High School coaches Mike Knowles and Lee Sinnes and gets organizational assistance from Joe Marvelle.

The program trains athletes in small groups, brings in nationally-recognized basketball instructors to assist in skill development with a focus on building basic and advanced fundamentals and making players more well-rounded.

This has contributed to the general rise in athletic aptitude displayed by girls basketball teams on the Peninsula for more than a decade.

“It’s all about creating a culture,” Marvelle said. “We want to build better basketball players.

“We cross-train everybody. That’s why I’m so proud of Jaida Wood. When you are 5-foot-6 as a 12-year old you almost immediately get pigeonholed as a post because of their height, but Jaida has [recently been able to] back up Millie at point guard.

“Mike does post work sessions with guards, and perimeter sesssions with the posts. Everybody has to know everybody else’s position.”

The program also encourages its players to compete in multiple sports, building different skill sets and muscle groups, something college coaches desire, according to Marvelle.

Competitive Hoops’ impact is not confined to Neah Bay and Port Angeles.

Forks’ 6-0 freshman Chloe Leverington was a second-team All-Evergreen League selection this season. The Spartans’ Iesha Johnson played heavy minutes for Forks and hit a game-winning 3-pointer to beat Hoquiam. Chimacum guard Mia McNair started as a freshman for the Cowboys and “has future league-MVP written all over her,” according to Marvelle.

Sequim freshmen Kali Wiker, Jayla Julmist and Abby Schroeder, all played heavy minutes for a Wolves team that just missed out on the district playoffs. All have trained with the program over the years.

Quilcene head coach Briana Weller praised its impact on her squad, with freshman posts Gina Brown and Marissa Kieffer, guard Brittany Beukes and sophomore guard Abby Weller, all participating.

“We have a basketball family up in Port Angeles now,” Weller said.

Marvelle said that group was putting in work in the program’s custom-built 36-by-28-foot practice facility at the Warehouse in Port Angeles soon after Clallam Bay edged the Rangers out of the Tri-District playoffs.

“It’s just really exciting,” Marvelle said. “I’m really excited to see where basketball is going as a sport on the peninsula.”

Clallam Bay

This rising tide could soon spread to other teams. Marvelle said Clallam Bay head coach Michael Maines recently reached out to see how he could get his players training with Competitive Hoops.

Clallam Bay (15-8) starts three freshman standouts, Cedar Johnson, Jada Clemmons, and Sydney Smith, and have freshmen Miranda Tyree and Justice Pilattie on the bench. These players helped the Bruins upset Neah Bay during the regular season — Clallam Bay’s first win over its rival in a decade.

“They have been a huge part of our success this year,” Bruins coach Michael Maines said of his freshmen class. “And I’m super excited about the years to come

The 12th seeded Bruins will play No. 13 Columbia Adventist (13-2) in a loser-out regional at Rogers at 8 p.m. Saturday with a shot to make a repeat trip to the Class 1B State Tournament in Spokane next week.

Port Townsend

No. 16 Port Townsend (10-11) is led by upperclassmen, with senior Kaitlyn Meek and junior Jaz Apker-Montoya leading the Redhawks to their first state appearance since the 2003-04 season.

But Port Townsend freshmen Alyah Fountain and Sorina Johnston have both received playing time on the Redhawks varsity.

“We haven’t got the PT kids up here, but Ally (Peninsula College women’s basketball coach Alison Crumb) has had Jaz and Kaitlyn up during the spring and summer and put them through workouts with the women’s team.”

Port Angeles’ Wheeler said she’s excited to take the floor in the Yakima SunDome next week with these teammates.

“I love the freshmen,” Wheeler said. “I’m glad I got to play with them my senior year.”

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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.