Locally: North Central grad Brianna King continues scoring barrage with Western Montana

“She’s our catalyst,” said Western Montana women’s basketball coach Lindsay Woolley.

“As she goes, the team goes,” said Tony Nakashima, Woolley’s assistant.

They were talking about Brianna King, the former North Central High School and Community Colleges of Spokane standout, who has the Bulldogs in the NAIA Division I conversation.

For the second time in two weeks, and fourth time this season, King was named the Frontier Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week.

The 5-foot-5 junior guard averaged 19 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals as the Bulldogs won twice, defeating No. 14 University of Providence in the process, to improve to 16-6 and climb back into the Top 25 at No. 24.

Two weeks ago, she was the NAIA Division I National Women’s Player of the Week.

“Everyone knows she’s a gifted scorer,” Woolley said of King, whose 18.13 scoring average ranks 12th nationally and her 417 total points are seventh.

But King is also a factor on the other end of the court, Woolley said.

“She’s an elite defender, one of the best, if not the best, in the conference,” she said. “She has the ability to impact the floor on both ends.”

King ranks 22nd nationally with 52 steals and 32nd with 2.261 per game.

“She’s making better decisions with the basketball,” Woolley said, “and that is why we are playing better. Because she draws so much attention she can get her teammates open shots. The way they guard her creates driving opportunities because there are penetration lanes.

“It’s really important to have her on the floor whether she is scoring or not.”

“When she brings the intensity, the rest of the team brings the intensity,” said Nakashima, noting, “She has a very high basketball IQ.”

He added that King “is very coachable and humble. She doesn’t let her ego get in the way. When she set the (school scoring) record (37 points), she just kept playing hard and acted like she’s done it before.”

King left CCS after two years with the school season scoring record (600 points), career record (1,175) and Northwest Athletic Conference tournament record (46). She was twice Eastern Region MVP and was the 2016-17 NWAC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year after leading the Sasquatch to the school’s first championship since 1984.

Now King is changing the way opponents look at the Western Montana Bulldogs.

College scene

Scout Cai, a Seattle Pacific sophomore from Colfax, recorded personal-best marks in four of the five events in the pentathlon at the UW Invitational, placing third overall in the indoor meet, to be named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Field Athlete of the Week.

In her first competition of the season, Cai turned in an NCAA Championships provisional qualifying mark of 3,709 points, No. 2 in Division II this season and fourth-best all time in the GNAC. Her previous PR was 3,499.

She had personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles (9.39 seconds; previous best 9.49), shot put (34 feet, 5 1/2 inches; previous best 31-10); 18-3 in the long jump (previous best 16-8) and 2:21.37 in the 800 meters (previous best 2:22.33). Cai also placed second in the high jump at 5-5.

• Eastern Washington senior Scott Paz was named the Big Sky Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the first time in his career after going undefeated in two singles and two doubles matches playing No. 1.

Jordan Phelan, a Lewis-Clark State sophomore outside hitter from East Valley, was named to the Frontier Conference Volleyball Academic All-Conference team. To be eligible, student-athletes must have a grade-point average of 3.0 or above.

• With nine members compiling 4.0 GPAs, Idaho women’s swimming and diving was named a Scholar All-America Team by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. The Vandals combined for a 3.43 GPA during fall semester, highest on record for the program, and second best in the Western Athletic Conference in the fall.
• With three returning all-conference players, Idaho was tabbed by the league coaches to finish second behind defending champion Sacramento State in the Big Sky Conference preseason women’s golf poll. Eastern Washington was sixth. Idaho returns junior Sophie Hausmann, the conference runner-up in 2017 and the top player in the league during the fall season; fellow first-teamer Michelle Kim; and honorable mention Kendall Gray. Eastern is led by sophomore Madalyn Ardueser, honorable mention All-Big Sky after a 10th-place finish in the conference tournament as a freshman. Idaho was picked fifth in the men’s preseason poll that was led by Northern Colorado, which parlayed a second-place finish a year ago and dominating fall season into a unanimous vote for the top spot. The Vandals have back junior Enrique Marin, a second-team selection in 2017 and eighth in the conference tournament.

Hockey

Kailer Yamamoto of the Spokane Chiefs, with 10 points in four games to extend a point streak to 10 games, was named Western Hockey League Player of the Week for the week ending last Sunday.

The Edmonton Oilers’ first-round draft pick had six goals and four assists as the Chiefs split the four games, losing twice in overtime. In the 10 games he had 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists).

Volleyball

Nathan Fristed, who has more than 20 years of coaching experience at the college, high school and club levels, has been named an assistant coach at Eastern Washington, Eagles head coach Michael King announced.

Since 2008, Fristed has been the head varsity coach at Thompson Valley High School in Loveland, Colorado. During his tenure, more than 30 of his players received scholarships to Division I and II programs, and he led the school to its first conference title and to several state tournament appearances.

Fristed, an Oregon State graduate, was an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham, where he helped the program go from 1-28 one season to 12-17 the next, and the was the assistant women’s coach at Linn-Benton Community College in Oregon among his other stops.