Ruen An Attention-Getter At A-1

Southern Idaho, meet Janelle Ruen.

After Thursday, we should say Southern Idaho has met Janelle Ruen. And it had to like what it saw.

Post Falls’ Ruen was far and away the second-best player to take the court in the sparking Idaho Center in the first day of the State A-1 girls basketball tournament.

The Idaho Center was the perfect venue for Ruen to display her dazzling abilities.

And while she was obviously No. 2, it was clear who was the best player in the opening round.

Madison senior post Brittney Hawks put on a dominating performance that won’t soon be topped - unless, of course, she does it herself.

To look at Hawks one would think it’s impossible for her to be as good as she showed. She’s a big-boned girl standing 6-foot-1. This isn’t meant to be insensitive, but if you saw her from a distance in a letter jacket and didn’t know she was a basketball player you’d think she was an offensive lineman.

But she has game. She went off for a state-tournament-record 47 points in Madison’s 61-59 overtime victory over defending champion Borah. That nearly doubled her previous career high (24).

Yes, most of her points - in fact, probably all her points - came in the key. But she scored with two, sometimes three, players hovering around her. And she scored on probably a dozen putbacks off missed shots by her teammates.

For her size, she’s incredibly athletic and coordinated. While she doesn’t break any sprint records running up and down the court, she doesn’t walk, either.

Several times she took passes and dribbled through a double team and scored.

The 47 points broke the previous mark by 11 points. She also broke the record for most field goals in a game (21), the old mark set by Coeur d’Alene’s Corissa Yasen (15) in 1991.

Because Madison guaranteed itself three games, Hawks will probably obliterate a couple more records. Alli Nieman of Sandpoint’s mark for most points in a tourney (83) is at risk as is most field goals in a tourney (33 by Yasen) and highest average (26.6 by Nieman).

Hawks is being recruited, but it’s a good bet she’ll end up at Ricks College, the top team in the Scenic West Athletic Conference this season.

Back to Ruen.

Last year, she was an honorable mention All-State pick. That’s largely because nobody in Southern Idaho knew about her.

If she’s not a first-team pick this year it would be a crime.

Consider her line from the opener: 25 points (11 of 16 shooting), nine rebounds, five steals, four assists. And equally impressive, no turnovers.

Centennial post Elisha Booth was probably the third-best player Thursday. She scored a team-high 22 points against Lake City.

Arrival a day late

Maybe it was the away dark blue uniforms. Maybe it was the new players wearing the uniforms. Maybe Lake City arrived at the State A-1 tourney a day late.

If you pick one or all the answers above you’d be correct.

The Timberwolves followed up their worst game of the season when they lost their unbeaten status with one of their best.

Coach Dave Stockwell suspected the pressure might have been too much. The last team to go undefeated and win a state title was Coeur d’Alene (25-0) in 1993-94, the year before LC opened.

Stockwell was an assistant to Dave Fealko that season.

Two years ago, Borah went to state undefeated only to watch its dream shattered. That was the year Sandpoint lost to Centennial in overtime in the final.

Back in the 1980s, Centennial coach Emery Roy took a Meridian team to state undefeated only to see the same thing happen to his team that his Patriots did to LC Thursday.

Go figure.

That’s why when a coach uses that famous trite saying - “anything can happen on any day in high school athletics” - the coach is right. Friday, LC played hard, and the smiles missing from the players’ faces Thursday returned.

They were loose. They played like a team that had an unbearable load lifted from their shoulders.

“I just told them before the game (Friday) that we couldn’t do anything about (Thursday), but we can salvage this tournament to a certain extend,” Stockwell said. “I told them to come out and show people they really are the best team in the state. I still believe they’re the best team in the tournament.”

They just won’t have the hardware to prove it.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo