Is Giese a good player? That’s a slam dunk

When Almira/Coulee-Hartline senior Greg Giese finally dunked on Dec. 12 against Reardan, third-grader Dallas Isaak was certain he knew who should get credit.

“Dad!” coach Scott Isaak’s son, the team’s ball boy, said. “I’m the reason he did it. I told him to dunk.”

Maybe the dunk is one of the reasons that little Dallas, one of coach’s four boys, looks up to the high school basketball player. Or maybe it’s the 6-foot-2 Giese, whom Scott said Dallas loves to be around.

“(Dallas) is our ball boy,” Scott Isaak said. “So when you get to hang with the high school guys, it’s kind of where you want to be. (Dallas) looks up to (Giese) and several of the players. He loves to sit by (Giese) on the bus and be around him. He’s always telling Greg ‘You gotta just dunk that thing.’ “

So Giese listened and dunked on back-to-back occasions, the first against Reardan and the next night on Davenport.

Both dunks seem pretty minor, however, when you take into account the guard/wing’s statistics on the season.

Giese is the Bi-County League’s leading scorer, averaging 23.6 points a game in 17 contests for the Warriors. In Tuesday’s 65-52 win over Lind-Ritzville, Giese had 30 points, 12 rebounds and seven steals. Isaak added that he typically has a double-double on most nights.

But don’t go thinking it’s the “Greg Giese” show. Isaak said it’s how Giese is involving everyone these days that has sparked a turnaround for his Warriors.

“As a player, you know he’s the glue,” Isaak said. “But as a person, he has made great personal choices this year that have helped him lead without talking. The team knows it, everyone around has seen it. There is some good leadership and chemistry going on right now. You can’t win the game 1-on-5 and the way he’s involving the other kids is great. We’re playing team ball.”

ACH started the year 1-7 overall. Since Dec. 30 the Warriors have gone 6-3, avenging early losses to Reardan (11-7, 8-6), Odessa (3-12, 2-11), Wilbur-Creston (6-11, 5-8) and Lind-Ritzville (10-8, 7-7) in their second round of league action. ACH has moved up to sixth in the standings, and is 7-10 overall, 6-8 Bi-County.

In regards to Giese, Isaak said the three-sport competitor (football, basketball, baseball) is as fine of an athlete that he has seen in a long time. Part of what makes Giese the centerpiece of a surging Warriors squad is his unselfish leadership.

“Athletically, he’s just phenomenal,” Isaak said. “And he’s completely unselfish. How do you score 30 points and be unselfish? Well, he does it. You just have to see him play.”