Frank Workman on Sports - Shorecrest girls finish on a win

By Frank Workman

The Shorecrest team didn’t just make history by bringing home the school’s first trophy (4th place) in girls basketball.

The Scots also managed to accomplish one of the hardest things to do in High School team sports --- winning their last game of the season, Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

Their loss in Thursday’s quarter-finals knocked them out of contention for winning the championship, but consolation-bracket wins Friday and Saturday resulted in a feeling foreign for the players, parents, and coaches.

For seniors to go out on a win is almost unheard of, and must feel deliciously satisfying.

Unless you’re the last team standing and win the State Championship (or if you’re on a team that is so bad it misses the playoffs but somehow manages to win the regular-season finale), every season invariably ends in sad defeat – a defeat made all the more sad by the realization that that year’s team will never play another game together.

Season-ending defeats come in all shapes and sizes, from the devastating one-point buzzer-beater to the thorough thrashing.

All result in tears.

While sad tears were absent in the post-game locker room, sweet joyful ones were unashamedly shed by most, as players (especially the five seniors) and their coach reflected on their years together.

Allison Jones was the team’s sixth-man (I steadfastly refuse to make any gender adaptations when it comes to basketball. Girls teams play man-to-man defense, and the first player off the bench is the sixth man). A defensive specialist, she could also be counted on to drill a three if left alone by opposing defenses.

India Matheson was the team’s rough-and-tumble post player. She was the essence of ‘agile, mobile, and hostile’. Teams drove the lane and challenged her for rebounds at their peril.

Janie Uppinghouse filled the role of long-range-bomber. When her outside shots fell, the team was darn near unbeatable.

Bri Lasconia’s lightning fast speed allowed her to drive for layups at will and to take over games unlike any player in memory to wear the green-and-gold. Her 45-point performance in one come-from-behind win this season was more a testament to the power of her will as it was to her ability.

Mickey Greenburg was simply the epitome of unselfishness, the glue, the unsung hero that no team that aspires to greatness can do without. She drew more charges than all her other teammates combined. She preferred to throw the pretty pass that resulted in two points to actually making the basket herself.

Dori Monson has coached these seniors since they were in rompers, and the players (and their moms and dads) have become like an extended family. The bond created over the years with the entire basketball family has been unique.

At an informal, celebratory gathering of some players, parents, coaches, and fans Saturday night at a local malt shoppe, several of the players were asked if they would trade in their fourth place finish for a shot at the State Championship.

Every girl replied that they wouldn’t trade in a win in the final game for anything.

They all knew how hard it was to win the last game of the season.

And they knew how good it felt to make school history.

See previous Frank Workman columns by clicking the link under the Features list in the first column on our webpage.