STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
LaSondra Barrett blocks one for the Flight
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - It's difficult to run the table under any circumstances, but imagine doing so under the scrutiny of college coaches from whom you want a scholarship worth some $250,000, playing two or three games daily, and being on the road for nearly a month straight. Imagine all of that, and you've put yourself in the shoes of the Tennessee Flight Silver.
LaSondra Barrett of the Tennessee Flight
against the Georgia Blazers
Oh yeah, and because of their success, they play every game with a target on their backs. Yet their biggest challenger so far during Basketball on the Bayou has been themselves - that is, their boredom, the monotony of winning and knowing they can win. Flight coach Matt Insell has been on his team about underachieving, but they find themselves right where they expected to be - in the Elite Eight.
And if the Flight can beat Peachtree State's second team on Wednesday morning, they'll get DFW Elite Gold in a semifinal that will be the equivalent of a championship in any other tournament. Behind Brooklyn Pope, ranked 14th in '08 by HoopGurlz, and Destini Hughes, ranked 19th, DFW also is running the table this summer and is coming off a major tournament win at the Nike Summer Showcase in Chicago.
Not to mention that DFW also has reloaded with the addition in this tournament of 6-foot-7 sensation Brittney Griner. The Flight, on the other hand, is missing 2010 point guard Lauren Avant, who is at AAU Nationals. Crystal Riley, the 5-6 point guard from Arlington, Tenn., has been getting better as the summer's gotten hotter, but could be prone without Avant against DFW's depth of quick backcourt defenders.
Mariah Chandler of the Louisville Legends
The other side of the bracket will be competitive from start to finish, with the heavyweights missing key players.
The best of all the quarterfinals should be the mirror-image matchup between Essence and the Louisville Legends. Both teams run and shoot the ball well. The Legends are led by Monique Reed, a Lousiville commit who is ranked 33rd overall in the 2008 class by HoopGurlz.com, and Tia Gibbs, a Vanderbilt commit. They also added 2009 powerhouse Mariah Chandler of Douglasville, Ga. Essence, of course, has HoopGurlz No. 2 prospect, April Sykes, as well as No. 13 Tiffany Hayes, a Connecticut commit, and No. 48 Whitney Hand, an Oklahoma commit. Missing is bruising forward Chelsey Lee of Miami, who is resting her tendonitis-wracked knees for Nike Nationals later this week.
Sykes, of Crawford, Miss., looks close to totally regaining her form in the aftermath of a dislocated right thumb suffered during the semifinals of the Boo Williams Invitational in April. She had to take several weeks off from even touching a basketball, then re-aggravated the injury, keeping her from competing at the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival. Sykes looks as explosive as ever and is shooting the ball well, in spite of a wrapped hand, though her shot is flatter than usual. She said she got into a bad habit of pulling her hand back on the follow through to prevent getting hit.
April Sykes of Essence
Shekinna Stricklen, a Tennessee commit ranked ninth overall by HoopGurlz, leads the Arkansas Mavericks in the other quarter against All-Ohio Black, which is without its Ayana Dunning of Columbus, Ohio, who has been out since the Nike Skills Academy, where she aggravated an ankle injury. And that after coming back from a bout with mononucleosis. All-Ohio made it out of the first round of bracket play by the skin of its teeth and some coaching moxy from Jay Bee Bethea. Peachtree State Black had a one-point lead and the ball with 2.3 seconds left, but could not inbound in backcourt. Bethea ran a mis-direction baseline out-of-bounds play that produced a wide-open layup by Tyeasha Moss at the buzzer.
In spite of all the talent assembled against them, until proven otherwise, the big dogs in this hunt still are the Tennessee Flight. They have a solid big three in LaSondra Barrett, of Jackson, Miss., the No. 16 prospect in 2008; Natalie Novosel, ranked 35th, and big-play specialist Candace Wood, the North Carolina commit ranked 43rd. The Flight has proven themselves the best closers in the club ranks this summer and, in a close game, it's difficult to bet against them.
Coach Matt Insell addresses the Tennessee Flight Silver
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher and founder of HoopGurlz.com. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. Glenn previously was the editor-in-chief at Scout.com and a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several books and national magazines. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). For more on Glenn's World, click here [1]. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com [2].
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