Those basic truths make Kaleena Lewis a prototype - of something new and big. She can be the first of her kind, a true gunslinger, willing to keep firing as long as her shots are not blanks.

They usually are not.

Kaleena Lewis shoots over Baden's Candace
Chambers

Just ask Baden Elite, a team from the Seattle area whose visions of engineering a major upset of one of the country's top club teams, West Coast Elite, melted amid a firestorm of Lewis three-pointers. It is rare enough to see girls toss down three-pointers in succession, but Lewis did it twice - once in each half - to help WCE escape the upset bid. The last barrage including twin back-breaking, catch-and-shoot daggers from the wing.

Considering Saturday's outburst as simply the tip of some global-warmth-defying iceberg would be a vastly underestimating this development. More accurately, it was just the very first hardened crystal. Lewis, you see, won't even be 14 until Nov. 3. Plus, not only is she bringing a different game, she's brining a different way of thinking. To wit, when she made her first few shots, it never even crossed her mind to quit taking them. Heck, this is a kid who tossed down eight three-pointers in one game for West Coast Elite at the Boo Williams Invitational last April.

When she gets into her zone, Lewis said, "there's a lot of hype going on and I feel like I'm really helping my team out. I don't think about stop shooting, I want to show more and more."

The concept of girl as three-point machine has been hatched in the wee hours of the morning in the Los Angeles area, during Lewis' 5 a.m. workouts at the local 24-Hour Fitness with her father, Khairi, a firefighter whose athletic background is in soccer. Never mind the similarities for both sports in angles and footwork, Khairi Lewis knows greatness is shaped by repetition, dedication and emulation of a great model. Because Kaleena was always big for her age, they choose Rasheed Wallace and Kobe Bryant as role models, their main positive feature being the high release point of their jumpers.

Brittany Gilbreath throws a nice interior
bounce pass past Chamgers to teammate
Monique Oliver

Khairi Lewis may not be an expert in basketball or shooting, but he knows bad form when he sees it. He noticed the most common shooting styles among girls are the shot from the hip and the jerky toss accompanied by a head twitch that he calls the "I Dream of Jeannie" style. To combat both, he's had Kaleena study great shooters (Reggie Miller is the current case), emulate their styles and practice, practice, practice. He threw in the early start time of her workouts as a test of her commitment.

What is beginning to emerge is a girl who hasn't yet played her first minute of high-school basketball at Mater Dei, but is strong, fluid and confident with an easy stroke from beyond the arc, off the bounce or the catch. Lewis also is comfortable with the ball in her hands and, because of her extensive experience in the post, knows her way around either box, in the event she is paired with a mismatched defender. Thanks to a plyometric program that she and her father often mix into her shooting regimen, Lewis has dropped some 15 pounds of baby fat since the fall and she looks a physically mature 5 feet 11.

This kid also is the total package as she is a good student, plays volleyball and is involved in student government.

"I like being involved," Lewis said. "I cannot be home, sitting around and doing nothing."

Rim Shots
Alex Earl, the hyperkenetic combo guard who is committed to Arizona State, was not in the lineup as Oregon state champion Southridge pushed the Cy-Fair Shock and Nneka Ogwumike to the limit on Saturday afternoon. She hurt her left foot during a soccer practice and was scheduled for an MRI exam. It is the same foot she broke last summer. ... Almost all of defending End of the Trail champion Cal Swish are spoken for, so the team's main attraction here is Christina Marinacci, a 2009 wing prospect from Foothill High School in Santa Ana, Calif. The 6-2 wing is a long, fluid athlete who runs the floor well and is a nice finisher with either hand in transition. She also can handle the ball and see the floor well enough to play on the perimeter. ... Basketball BC, from British Columbia, Canada, beat tall, athletic ODGL in front of a healthy contingent of college coaches. They no doubt left with the likes of Julie Seabrook etched in their minds. Seabrook is 6-3 with a great wingspan who moves well enough to be effective in any type of program. She also is extremely fundamental on her blockouts and postups and, in spite of a slight frame, not at all afraid of contact.

Atonye Nyingifla of Cal Swish Black