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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Preugschat Reaches New Heights Against The Best Of The B’S

Denise Gellner Correspondent

After being handed the responsibility of guarding Davenport’s Jennifer Stinson in Wednesday’s loss, Bridgeport-Mansfield’s Shelbie Preugschat led her team to a 66-55 win over Watson Groen Christian Thursday.

Davenport won the opener 69-64 despite the efforts of the 5-foot-10 Preugschat, who scored 22 points while holding the 6-1 Stinson to 21 - well below her 30.3 season average.

“(Guarding Stinson) really put a lot of pressure on me,” Preugschat said, “because I didn’t want to let the team down and let her score a bunch of points.”

It was a difficult task. “If I stood straight up, she could still shoot right over me,” Preugschat said. “But I felt like I played pretty good defense against her.”

This year is Preugschat’s first year at center after beginning her career as a guard.

“She’s taken to it like a duck to water,” Bridgeport-Mansfield coach Mel Wells said, “but she hasn’t gotten used to the physicalness of it yet, and it frustrates her.”

After a successful battle with Stinson, Preugschat faced 6-1 senior Amanda Andreasen in her team’s triumph over Watson Groen Christain. Preugschat scored a game-high 19 points while holding Andreasen to seven.

“She’s only a sophomore and she played against probably the best basketball player in the state (Wednesday),” Wells said. “Then she came back today and said, ‘Another 6-1 girl?”’

Tibbles returns

Former Creston star Tammy Tibbles attended the tournament Thursday.

Tibbles, who played in the State B tournaments from 1982-84, held the state scoring record with 318 points until Stinson broke the record Wednesday.

“I heard about it later on in the day,” Tibbles said. “It was great while it lasted. That’s one of the little things that I took with me from basketball; there’s so much more. When I was playing high school ball, I didn’t even know there was a state record to beat.”

Tibbles works for the fire department and is the girls coach at North Central High. “It’s not the same as playing,” she said.

Dressed to win

Many fans are sporting buttons with snapshots of their favorite players, along with wearing their favorite team’s colors.

St. John-Endicott’s entire band wore its high school football team’s jerseys.

And 30 relatives of Wishkah Valley’s Mindy McElliott donned custom-made “McElliott Maniac” T-shirts.

“We had them made for the district tournament and state tournament,” said Rick Manlow, McElliott’s uncle. “We’re big fans.”

Having her name plastered all over 30 T-shirts doesn’t embarrass McElliott.

“It feels good because they’re supporting me and they’re supporting the whole team. I think it’s great,” she said.