Publication Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
STATE BASKETBALL
It's another
It's another
(March 23, 2005)banner year
for Pinewood
by Keith Peters
Daniela Roark remembered walking into the Pinewood gym her freshman year and seeing the 1999 state championship banner won by the girls' basketball team.
Roark said to herself: "I want one of these before I leave here."
On Friday, Roark walked out of ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Her mission was accomplished. The Pinewood gym will have another state championship banner following the Panthers' 61-39 romp over Pacific Hills in the CIF Division V state finals.
"This is the perfect way to end it," said Roark, who scored 12 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished six assists while helping the Panthers cap a 26-5 season in dreamy fashion.
Pinewood junior Liz Altmaier would have to agree. Altmaier was a fifth-grader when she and fourth-grader Veronica Mapes watched the Panthers win the 1999 state title. On Friday, Altmaier scored a team-high 16 points and Mapes was a vocal supporter on the bench as the Panthers finished their season with 19 straight victories.
"It has been a long journey," said Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler. "It's a nice chapter at the end of the book, to win the state championship."
Pinewood junior Hannah Lippe wrote her own storybook ending to the championship season. She missed all three NorCal playoff games after suffering a hairline fracture of her right wrist during the Panthers' victory in the Central Coast Section finals.
Despite the fact the injury was to her shooting hand, Lippe was not about to sit on the bench with so much at stake.
"I was not going to miss this game," Lippe said.
Pinewood assistant Sarah Foster put Lippe on a program of Advil and ice. Lippe shot layups with her left hand during practice was deemed ready to play.
Despite playing only 14 minutes, Lippe made six of 11 shots and scored 12 points while shooting left-handed. She also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in addition to blocking two shots.
"She shouldn't have really been playing," Scheppler said. "The main thing that I wanted for her was participation, just to be a part of it - especially after missing the three NorCal games. I wanted her to be effective when she was out there . . . but what she did in 14 minutes was amazing."
Lippe's contribution was two-fold. With her, Pinewood had eight solid players to rotate. Lippe also was a major factor in the Panthers' pressure defense.
"I didn't want fatigue to be a factor," Scheppler said. It wasn't, at least not for Pinewood. Pacific Hills wore down quickly as Pinewood poured it on just after halftime.
During Pinewood's 17-0 run just into the third quarter that pushed the Panthers to an insurmountable 40-19 lead, Lippe made three straight layups.
"Hannah did a great job of finishing plays," Scheppler said. "What can you say about someone with a hairline fracture of her right, dominant hand who played the game she had and hasn't played in a week and a half. It was wonderful."
Pinewood's performance early in the game wasn't so wonderful. Pacific Hills, playing in its first-ever state final, showed its expected nervousness and made only one of 12 shots in the first quarter and was only four of 21 by halftime.
Battle-tested Pinewood, however, wasn't much better. A 2-for-15 effort in the first quarter left the Panthers with a 9-4 lead. By halftime, Pinewood had made only eight of 32 shots and held a 23-17 advantage.
"In the first half, we missed a lot of shots," Scheppler said. "I thought we played too fast."
Scheppler, however, wasn't too concerned. In the locker room at halftime, Scheppler looked at his team and asked one question: "Are we having trouble getting shots?"
The unanimous answer: "No!"
"We know if we're not having a hard time getting shots, that eventually they'll fall, even in a big arena," Scheppler explained. "As time went on, we became more comfortable, hit our threes, got inside . . found easy ways to score. We did a good job of finding people."
After Pacific Hills opened the second half by scoring and getting to within 23-19, Roark and her teammates took over. They drove and dished off, finding the open player for easy baskets. Fourteen of the points in the 17-0 run came on layups, most off pick-and-rolls. Lippe had three layins while Roark and Altmaier had two apiece. Sophomore Sami Field-Polisso finished off the run - and Pacific Hills - with a three-pointers and a 40-19 lead with 2:35 remaining.
Equally important during that time was Pinewood's defense, which held the Bruins scoreless for more than six minutes and without a field goal for 8:33, spanning the third and fourth quarters.
"It was a combination of locking into them defensively, getting hands on a lot of balls and limiting them to one shot," said Scheppler, whose team forced Pacific Hills into 25 turnovers and just .214 shooting for the game. "I thought we did a terrific job of wearing them down."
And an even better job of bringing home the school's second state championship banner.
The goal now is to earn a third banner, and Pinewood is equipped to do just that.
"We have six players coming back from our top eight players," Scheppler said. "We're excited to be in a position similar to this year."
Helping Pinewood's return to the top next season will be a Private Schools Athletic League scheduled reduced to a single round robin.
"We'll have only five league games, so we'll be able to schedule extra, more-competitive games that get us ready for CCS and NorCal," Scheppler said. "It should be an exciting year."
One, however, that can be put on hold for a moment.
"The girls are walking around (campus) with big smiles are their faces," Scheppler said. "The after-effect is what a great season we had. I want this, what they accomplished, to sink in."
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