Former Area Prep Stars Going To The Big Dance ‘What A Big Jump!’ G-Prep’s Williams Says Of Ncaa Invite

Exactly one year ago, it was the girls State AAAs at the Kingdome.

Now, it’s the NCAAs at Norfolk, Va.

“What a big jump!” said Jennifer Williams, a member of the University of New Mexico Lobos, who will take off for Norfolk this week, one of eight sub-regionals sites at this year’s women’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Williams represented the Gonzaga Prep Bullpups of the Greater Spokane League at last March’s girls State AAA tournament in Seattle.

She is one of six former GSL players whose teams qualified into this year’s NCAA Tournament. She doesn’t have to look far to find another. Teammate Jodi Cory, a reserve junior guard, graduated from Mead High and is contributing 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.

Former St. George’s star Kari Hutchinson, a senior at Notre Dame and Moscow, Idaho’s Heather Owen, a senior at No. 5 ranked Stanford, also will represent the Inland Northwest.

“That’s awesome; that’s great for Spokane,” said Williams, a 6-foot-1 starting freshman post. “I knew we had a good AAU (summer league) program. But I didn’t know Washington basketball was that good.”

Neither were the Lobos until Don Flanagan, formerly a Class AAA high school coach in Albuquerque, rescued the program.

Three years after Flanagan took over, the Lobos (26-6), seeded eighth in the East Region, are off to their first NCAA Tournament since joining the Western Athletic Conference in 1990-91.

The Lobos were the fourth-place team out of the Mountain Division and beat Rice in the title game 69-48. They’ve won 14 of their last 16 games.

UNM plays ninth-seeded Nebraska (22-9) Friday with the winner most likely meeting No. 1 seed and host team Old Dominion (27-2).

Williams, the only freshman starter, had a monster game against Hawaii in the semifinal round. She scored a season-high 20 points and pulled in 11 rebounds. Williams entered the postseason averaging 9.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

“I don’t know. I just got the ball a lot inside and it just happened,” Williams explained.

And she wasn’t the only GSL player who showed her best stuff in the postseason.

University of Montana senior center Angella Bieber, formerly of University High, stepped up in the Big Sky Conference championship game. Bieber scored a career-high 24 points on 8-of-24 shooting in UM’s 58-48 win over Northern Arizona. She was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

The win put the Grizzles (24-5) into the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year. However, this year, they received their lowest seed (14th) and will have to travel the farthest. The Grizzlies meet third-seeded and 13th-ranked Southeastern Conference power Florida (21-8) Saturday night in Gainesville, Fla.

Bieber’s assignment probably will be Murriel Page, a second-team All-American, who leads the nation in rebounding (13.0) and averages 19.3 points.

Here’s a look at others area players heading to the NCAA Tournament:

UC Santa Barbara sophomore Stacy Clinesmith, formerly of Mead, also scored a career high last week at the Big West Conference tournament. She finished with 34 points in a semifinal overtime win over Nevada.

The Midwest 11th-seeded Gauchos (26-5) are off to Champaign, Ill., where they’ll play another SEC power, sixth-seeded and 18th-ranked Vanderbilt (20-8).

Regan Freuen, a junior, who played high school ball at Mead, could see her role change this week when Stanford (21-5), the No. 1 seed from the West region, opens at home against 16th-seeded Harvard (22-4).

If the fiery Vanessa Nygaard (knee injury) isn’t cleared to play, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer saod she’s considering moving Freuen from shooting guard to Nygaard’s small forward spot. Or, she’ll move freshman Sarah Dimson or power forward Kristin Folkl into Nygaard’s spot and keep Freuen put.

Stanford’s 6-4 forward Owen saved her best season for her senior year and brings a 10.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg to the tournament.

Hutchinson and Notre Dame are back after making the Final Four in 1997. The Fighting Irish (20-9), seeded ninth in the Midwest, play eighth-seeded Southwest Missouri State (24-5) Friday at Lubbock, Texas. Hutchinson, a 6-0 senior reserve, has contributed 3.5 ppg in 16 minutes of playing time.

Freshman Crystal Lee, a member of last year’s Central Valley State AAA runner-up team, has played in 16 games in a reserve role for the University of Hawaii.

The eight-seeded Rainbows (24-3) - the team Williams’ lit it up against at the WAC tournament - travels to Stanford and will play ninth-seeded Arkansas (18-10). The winner will meet Stanford unless Harvard can do the unthinkable.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: STATS FOR AREA PLAYERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT Name, School GP-GS FG-FGA-FG% FT-FTA-FT% REB PPG Angella Bieber, Montana 28-28 86-184-.467 49-74-.662 149 7.9 Jodi Cory, New Mexico 29-1 19-63-.302 7-9-.778 31 1.8 Stacy Clinesmith, UCSB 31-31 137-338-.405 87-124-.782 105 13.9 Regan Freuen, Stanford 24-13 38-77.494 14-18-.778 24 4.8 Kari Hutchinson, ND 28-3 2964-.453 14-24-.583 80 3.5 Heather Owen, Stanford 25-25 85-157-.541 85-116-.733 133 10.2 Crystal Lee, Hawaii 16-0 6-20-.300 2-9-.222 16 1.8 Jennifer Williams, N.Mex. 32-32 129-237- .544 51-96-.531 184 9.7