All-star tilt last game for Central Valley’s Heintz

For someone who came to basketball later than many of her contemporaries, Heidi Heintz has made the most of her career.

The Central Valley senior, this year’s Greater Spokane League scoring leader, didn’t begin playing basketball seriously until eighth grade, but has stamped herself among the best in league history.

Her final prep appearance, before taking her singular style of play to the University of San Francisco, will come tomorrow night in the 13th Jack Blair Memorial Girls AAU All-Star Basketball Classic at University.

The game pits the GSL’s best against stars from Idaho and smaller Washington schools.

“It’s going to be fun,” said Heintz, who will be suiting up for the third time in the annual game, but playing in her second game. “Hopefully it will be something I can remember.”

Last year the Jack Blair Memorial “junior jinx” struck Heintz and Heather Bowman, who watched from the bench because of injuries. They’re back, but this year it’s junior Angie Bjorklund who will be there strictly as a spectator.

Bjorklund, both the Washington State Gatorade and Associated Press Player of the Year, has a stress fracture and will be in a cast for much of the summer.

Bjorklund had been anticipating a tryout for the USA Basketball U18 team in Colorado this summer and was set to travel with the Spokane Stars to several national tournaments.

Heintz is part of the star-studded Metro team playing during a golden era of GSL basketball.

Ten of the league’s top 15 overall career scorers have played during Heintz’s four-year CV stay.

She finished her career third all-time among Bears point producers and eighth overall in the GSL with 1,116. Bowman is tops with 1,680 and Bjorklund stands fourth, 302 points away from first with a year to go.

Heintz is, in basketball parlance, a slasher. Generously listed at 5-foot-10, she has an uncanny knack of driving to the basket and scoring in traffic. She won over Spokane Stars coach Ron Adams last summer in her one season with his Elite Blue team.

“We weren’t sure how much time she would get because I hadn’t seen her at that level,” Adams said. “But she played up a storm. She is so improved it’s scary.”