“We are Family”

Riverview Park Activities Center – North Augusta, SC

The 2005 Girls Nike Nationals in North Augusta, SC was loaded with individual talent like Maya Moore (Georgia Metros), Tina Charles (Liberty Belles), Dymond Simon (Cal Swish Black), Jessica Taylor (Fairfax Stars), Angie Bjorklund (Spokane Stars) and Amber Harris (The Family) just to name a few.

When you have talent like that in one place believe me the college coaches show up in droves and they did, Pat Summitt (Univ. of Tennessee), Carolyn Peck (Univ. of Florida), AC-Tracey Williams (Univ. of North Carolina), AC-Angie Hembree (Univ. of Miami), recruiters from LSU, Mississippi State, UCONN, Florida State, etc., etc.. you get the picture.

Championship Game

The Family, IN vs. Spokane Stars, WA

The Family's Amber Harris was unstoppable in the 2nd half against Spokane.

The excitement in the gym was justified as The Family from Indianapolis, IN and the Spokane Stars from Spokane, WA entered the championship game undefeated. Angie Bjorklund (a 6-0 junior) for the Spokane Stars and Delaquese Jernigan (a 5-11 senior) for The Family provided some early fireworks with their ability to put the ball in the basket as the teams scrambled to an early 11-11 tie. Ashley Barlow (a 5-8 senior) used her defensive skills to lead a mini-run; her steal and lay-up gave The Family a 15-12 lead with 9:48 left in the 1st half.

Bjorklund is an outstanding player and in the 1st half she was just unstoppable, her three-pointer tied the game at 15-15 and then she made a sweet assist to teammate Tonya Schnibbe (a 5-6 senior) to give Spokane a 17-15 lead. The lead reached seven, 21-15 when Bjorklund knocked down a pair of free-throws with 7:23 left on the clock.

With 3:40 left and the score tied at 21-21 Bjorklund took her first seat on the bench to get a little rest. Jernigan who had been a little quite after her early explosion got back into it scoring on a beautiful spin move to put The Family back in front 23-21. Katelan Redmon (a 6-1 junior) picked up her game with Bjorklund on the bench scoring on a sweet reverse underhand lay-up to tie the game for Spokane.

Angie Bjorklund from Spokane was lighting it up for the Stars.

The sharp-shooting Bjorklund re-entered the game with 2:23 in the half and immediately drilled a three-pointer to give Spokane the lead 26-23. With time running down in the half Barlow meshed out a three-pointer of her own to pull The Family to within two 28-26. At the end of the half Spokane led 30-28.

Behind the guard play of Sarah Morton (a 5-7 junior) and Schnibbe; Spokane came out and scored the first 5 points of the 2nd half to take their largest lead of the game 35-28 as the frustration started to set in on the faces of The Family’s players. A basket by Redmon pushed the lead up to 37-28 forcing The Family to call a timeout to settle things down with 14:140 to play.

With 13:09 to play one play changed the whole complexion of the game. Spokane had just scored to make the score 40-30 and heading back down the floor some players got tangled up and hit the court, one of those players was Delaquese Jernigan of The Family. Jernigan didn’t get up for a little while and had to be attended to before leaving the game and being taken to the locker room where she remained for the rest of the game.

You’ve heard the old adage “Don’t wake-up the Beast”, well that play woke up Amber Harris the 6-5 senior All-American (a Purdue signee) of The Family who went to work; I’m mean she just totally took over the game on both ends of the court. With Harris now into the game; she and Bjorklund went at it back and forth. Harris scored then Bjorklund drilled a three-pointer. Erica Carlson (a 6-4 senior) also appeared to be more motivated by the loss of Jernigan as she started controlling the defensive boards. Her outlet pass to Harris resulted in a basket that cut the lead to 45-40 with 9:27 to play.

Ashley Barlow did a lot of damage scoring 22 points to lead The Family .

Sarah Morton goes hard to the hole for Spokane.

A few moments later Harris brought the crowd to their feet when Rebecca Gray (a 5-10 junior) hit her with an alley-oop pass that she dropped in over the rim (not quite a dunk but it was awful close) to make it 45-42. Still needing to do something about Bjorklund’s hot hand, Harris told her teammates “I got her” and commenced to start shutting her down (as much as one can).

Baskets by Barlow and Harris pulled The Family even at 47-47. Spokane didn’t back away a steal and basket by Morton gave the Stars back the lead 49-47. A beautiful spin move by Harris to score once again brought the crowd to their feet. Bjorklund was starting to get a little winded as her shots started falling a little short hitting the lip of the rim.

With 6:29 to play The Family regained the lead 51-49 on a basket by Barlow. While Bjorklund was on the bench resting Harris was on the court dominating the paint with her array of spin moves, her basket made the score 57-52.

Barlow played a terrific game for The Family and down the stretch she just got loose, her three-pointer with just under 2:00 minutes to play gave her team their largest lead of the game 62-55 as they started pulling away.

With :48 seconds to play Bjorklund came out of the game and received a loud applause from the appreciative crowd. As the final seconds ran off of the clock The Family’s players rushed the court to celebrate their hard fought 67-57 Championship win.




Game Stats

Semi-Final Games
The Family, IN vs. Georgia Metros, GA

Delaquese Jernigan did a nice job of handling the ball at the point down the stretch for The Family.

The Georgia Metros Maya Moore had a big-time tournament finishing at or near the top of several statistical categories.

The much-anticipated match-up between The Family and the Georgia Metros had their side of the court overflowing with college coaches. Early on behind the play of guards Beth Marshall (a 5-5 senior) Fakhara Malone (a 5-4 senior) and Merideth Marsh (a 5-7 senior) The Family seized control of the game. They appeared to be a lot quicker on their feet beating the Metros to every available loose ball. It didn’t help the Metros either that All-American Maya Moore’s shots were a little off.

With bookends Amber Harris (a 6-5 senior) and Ta’Shia Phillips (a 6-5 junior) controlling the boards The Family was able to put a lot of pressure on the Metros guards Ashley Houts (a 5-6 senior) and Janae Stokes (a 5-9 senior). Delaquese Jernigan (a 5-11 senior) did a nice job of handling the ball at the point down the stretch as The Family looked to run time off of the clock taking a comfortable 41-27 lead into the half.

I’m not sure what the Georgia Metros coaches told them at halftime but they came out of the locker room with a different attitude. The Metros got a big-time burst of energy from D’Andra Moss (a 5-11 senior) who came off of the bench with some real aggressiveness on the boards that must have carried over to her teammates Kelley Cain (a 6-5 junior) and Jordan Greenleaf (a 6-1 senior) who joined in on the battle.

With time becoming a factor Moore went to work scoring back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 61-52 but the comeback would fall short; Marshall and Marsh finished off nice games with two big baskets that helped The Family hold off a stubborn Georgia Metros team 67-60 advancing them into the Championship Game.

Game Stats