The Perfect Season

Well, they did it, and we had a lot of fun being a small part of it. Ricky's girls' basketball team won State on Saturday night.  I'll post a few more of Ricky working away when he gets them to me in a format I can use. These girls are as good of a group of young women as you might find anywhere--hard working, disciplined, and genuine. We enjoyed having them over for a spaghetti dinner on Wednesday night before they headed to Portland to play in the State tournament. Three games later, they were state champions. Below is part of an article that was in the local newspaper and some pictures.

AJ & Sunny at the buzzer.

Class 5A girls: A perfect ending

Willamette beats North Eugene to finish 27-0 and win second title in last three years

BY STEVE MIMS

The Register-Guard

PORTLAND — Willamette’s perfect season is complete.

The top-ranked Wolverines capped a 27-0 season with a 49-33 win over No. 7 North Eugene in the OSAA Class 5A girls basketball final Saturday night at the Chiles Center.

“Every single goal those girls set this year they accomplished,” Willamette coach Paul Brothers said. “They said they wanted to do this and that, and methodically clipped them off until they got the last one tonight. They have been so focused.”

Those goals included an undefeated nonleague schedule, a league title, an unbeaten season and a state title.

It was the second state title in three years for Willamette, and once again the Wolverines defeated a league foe for the championships. Two years ago, Willamette beat Churchill 45-29 in the final, and this time the margin of victory was the same as the Wolverines defeated North Eugene (19-8) for the fourth time this season.

Willamette’s four senior starters — Smith, Aly Bruns, Alyssa Garner, and Katie Collins — all played varsity since their freshman season and finished their careers with a 95-14 record. They won two state championships and lost to the eventual state champion — Southridge in 2006 and Jefferson in 2008 — in the playoffs during the other two seasons.

Those four got a big boost this season with the addition of 6-foot-4 post Sunny Greinacher, an exchange student from Germany.

Greinacher had 24 points on 9-for-11 shooting and also had 12 rebounds and two steals. Willamette shot 59.3 percent from the field, making 16-of-27 shots.

Willamette scored on its first four possessions to take a 10-2 lead, and the margin grew from there. Garner and Smith hit back-to-back three-pointers to open the game before Greinacher added two free throws and a bucket. Greinacher added a rebound basket to make it 12-2 with 3:18 left in the first quarter.

 “Obviously they really wanted it badly because that’s about as good a first half as we’ve played all year,’ Brothers said. “Every kid was just focused on what they needed to do. Aly played great defense, A.J. decided she’d shoot whenever they gave her a little bit of space, and they all went in. Sunny just dominated inside.”

 “Paul tells us the most important parts of the game are the first three minutes and the first three minutes of the third quarter, so that’s when we wanted to dominate the most,” said Collins, who had four points, three assists and two steals.

Sunny Greinacher is easily the player of the game in this one where she put in 24 points (9-11 shooting), 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block in 31 minutes of play. That's about as good as you can get, folks.

Sunny and AJ celebrate the victory.