Plenty to admire on GSL courts
Questions come up all the time, and for most of them I have no answers.
Today I do.
Has girls basketball finally made it?
Standing outside of Gonzaga University’s McCarthey Athletic Center last Saturday afternoon, that question ran through my mind.
The line of people waiting to buy tickets to the Zag women’s game stretched around the block and down the street, almost to the old Kennel.
More than 3,000 found their way inside to watch, to cheer, to enjoy women’s basketball.
Tonight, the Lewis and Clark Tigers girls team will travel to the Valley to face the University Titans.
The game pits top-ranked U-Hi against the fourth-ranked Tigers – and they probably both would be in the top three, with Garfield, if the West Side writers could actually see them play – to decide the GSL title.
But more important, it is being played by itself.
No boys game before or after. Nothing else, just the girls playing before a packed house.
Most nights in the GSL, if the girls game is second, the crowd melts away after the boys game with only a handful of non-parents sticking around to watch. Even the student sections slim down or disappear, depending on the night of the week.
The casual fan still doesn’t get excited by the girls’ game. They still judge them against the boys. They compare the two and find the girls’ game lacking.
Which is sad.
Compare Ferris’ boys team, the GSL champions, to Eastern Washington’s men’s team. Are the Saxons as good? Can they jump as high? As quick? More athletic?
No to all those questions.
But who cares? They are both playing basketball, just at different levels. It is a beautiful game no matter the level.
A good game is a combination of skill, execution, competition and coaching. A good game is fun to watch, no matter the gender of the competitors. A good game is available tonight in the Valley.
Just leave any preconceived notions at home.
Was there a better game this year than Shadle Park’s five-overtime win over Mt. Spokane on Tuesday night, the longest game in GSL history?
No.
Going in, it looked as if the loser would not make the 4A playoffs. For the seniors, a loss would end their basketball careers. So both teams’ seniors played like they never wanted it to stop.
It almost didn’t.
Mt. Spokane 6-foot-5 senior guard C.J. Barschig came in averaging 8.4 points a game, but twisted and sliced his way to a career-high 21, including the game-tying shot with 4 seconds left in regulation. Shadle’s Josh Powell, who will play football next year at Eastern, came up with clutch free throws, big rebounds and, ultimately, the game-winning tip after 52 minutes of play.
Both teams seemed exhausted at the end, due in large part because both lost two players to fouls, forcing them to use just five players for most of the five overtimes.
Without their legs, both teams had to play with their hearts, which was appropriate because Shadle coach Tim Gaebe emphasized heart in his weekly handout to his team. The thrust of the lesson: You can buy anything except heart.
“This team has earned heart many times this year,” Gaebe said afterward. “It’s just been so tough for us to finish games, but we really believe we can play with anybody on this side of the state right now. We win one more game (which would mean a regional berth), and we can prove it.”
No question.