Fueled by memories

Jessie DePell remembers the feeling, sitting there in the locker room at Mead High School one year ago this week.

Her Freeman Scotties, who finished tied for the Northeast A League championship with Lind-Ritzville and ahead of eventual state Class 1A champion Colfax, had just been eliminated, 46-44, by Kettle Falls in the final game of the NEA tournament, a game shy of reaching the regionals.

“That was so painful,” the junior admitted. “It was so painful to go watch the regional and state games, knowing that we should have been there.”

Should they ever.

Colfax and Lind-Ritzville played for the state championship in the Yakima SunDome – and the Scotties beat both during the regular season.

Against Kettle Falls, the team’s season-long knack for playing to the level of its competition came back with an ironic bite. After beating the Bulldogs twice, by margins of 20 and 14 points, the Scotties watched two free throws drop with 2.8 seconds left to end their season with a thud.

“We were so confident going into that game,” DePell said. “(Point guard) Melissa (Baker) was so sick before that game and wanted to play so bad, but we told her to sit the game out and get better so she would be healthy for regionals. And then we went out there and lost the game.

“But the other side of that is that so many more people were committed to getting better over the summer. Everyone knew that we had to work harder if we were going to go somewhere.”

Freeman’s second-year head coach, Matt Gregg, is treading heavily on those tender emotions this past week, reminding his players just how high the cost is of not leaving your entire game on the floor every time you don the team jersey.

“We want to go out and make up for what happened last year,” DePell said. “Our coach has been reminding us of that feeling last year, in the locker room after our last game, knowing that we weren’t going anywhere.”

The not so subtle reminders are probably like reminding someone they have a nose while they’re wearing a pair of glasses. It’s pointing out the obvious.

The repercussions of that loss have resonated state wide this season. Freeman headed into the NEA tournament opener against Newport with a 17-2 record and a 15-game win streak. Freeman is the No. 1-ranked Class 1A team in the state, garnering five of six first-place votes in the state-wide Associated Press poll released this week.

In the Scotties regular-season finale, against Newport, the team won by 48 points. They beat the defending state champs by 15 and 14 points, respectively.

So much for playing to the level of competition.

“A lot of that (killer instinct) comes from our seniors,” DePell said. “They realize this is their last chance. We didn’t have that strong of a senior class last year. And I think, when you’re an underclassman, you always think you have next year.”

DePell has averaged 14.2 points per game this season, her third as a starter. Throughout her career, DePell has been the Scotties go-to player, the leading scorer. A role she fills easily.

This year, however, it’s different.

“Last year, and even my freshman year, I felt a lot of pressure to score,” she said. “This year we had a lot of seniors work really hard on their game and improve. Now teams look in the box scores and wonder ‘Who are we supposed to guard?’ That’s a good thing. Anyone can score in double figures for us.”

Baker, healthy heading into the postseason, runs the point with dizzying speed, and senior post Ashlee Taylor has become a scoring machine in the post.

“(Melissa) has been playing so well,” DePell said. “You can tell: when she’s relaxed and having fun out there, she plays so unbelievably well. It’s so much fun playing with her because she does a great job distributing the ball.

“Ashlee has always been our post, has always been there in the middle. But this year, she worked so hard on her game and taken her game up to the next level. She’s playing more like she loves the game and not just playing it. She’s gotten stronger and plays with a lot more confidence – she’s surprised everyone.”

The balanced scoring has allowed Gregg to tweak the offense for the better.

“Coach Gregg is always talking about playing the game from the inside out,” DePell said. “Get the ball into the post first, and if the shot isn’t there, kick it back out. We have two strong guards and that has really helped us. We pass the ball inside to Ashlee, they drop down and double team her and then she kicks the ball back out and we’re wide open.

“Last year the coach had me playing a little more run-and-gun. If I had my girl one-on-one, he told me to take her to the basket. This year, we’re more structured. If the shot isn’t there, I go ahead and set the offense and we work the ball. He still wants us to fast break, because that’s where we score most of our points. But now we have strong post players, and that allows us to be more patient, more selective, because we can.

“Last year I kind of had to slash to the basket and try to score. I don’t have to take that onto myself this year. We have other players who can score every night. That takes the pressure off me.”