Addition of Smith has made Stockdale girls more dominating
| Thursday, Jan 29 2009 02:23 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:31 PM
Images
Alexi Smith (44) of the Stockdale girls basketball team in action earlier this month.
Sometimes, local girls basketball coaches might tell you, life just isn’t fair.
Stockdale already has long tortured Kern County — though last year might have been worse than most. Led by Californian All-Area Player of the Year Melissa Sweat and backcourt mate Jalei Kinder, the Mustangs won 26 games, by an average margin of 29 points, against just four losses.
The only solace local coaches might be able to take is that the Mustangs had one weakness — small, usually insignificant, but still there. They didn’t have a tall, intimidating post player to patrol the paint.
Then Alexi Smith’s family bought a house in the Stockdale district, and the Mustangs added Bakersfield High’s best player from last year, perhaps Kern County’s best post player and a rebounding extraordinaire.
Yeah. Not fair.
“She just kind of fell into our lap,” Stockdale co-coach Charles Stewart said. “Someone told me that they were going to be buying a house in the attendance area, and hallelujah.”
Smith, for her part, said she could have played her senior season at Bakersfield to finish her career as a Driller, but that the temptation of playing for the Mustangs — and with good friend Sweat — was too great.
“It’s been fun,” Smith said. “I really like the program. They really know what they’re doing over here.”
So far, it’s worked out well for Stockdale. Smith is averaging a modest 10.0 points and 7.1 rebounds a game, but the latter total leads the team, and she’s even picked up the Mustangs’ full-court defense with 2.6 steals a game.
“The first day of practice kind of killed me, but I got used to it,” Smith said. “But I like fast-paced. It’s a change, because (at BHS) it was always a slow pace. I didn’t think I would like it that much, but I liked the girls and the team, so I was willing to do whatever.”
Add that to Kinder and Sweat, whose point averages are down but who still lead an attack that often goes 13 players deep, and Stockdale has been just as dominant as last year, or maybe more so.
“The bottom line is we’ve got some athletes who are good basketball players, really good kids, and they’re doing what we’re asking of them,” Stewart said.
The Mustangs are 16-4 with nary a loss in the Central Section, and they haven’t played a Southwest Yosemite League game closer than 23 points in six tries.
They’ve won games by 39, 45, 42, 33, 49, 46, 48 and 41 points — and that’s with Stewart and co-coach Glenn Hager often emptying the bench long before time has expired.
“We just try to play like we practice,” Sweat said. “But I wonder about that too. Do people think they’re going to lose when they come in here? I don’t know. But (Alexi) said when she went to BHS, she knew she was going to lose when they played against us.”
But, as much as Stockdale’s tale is one of dominance, it’s also one of unfinished business.
The team made a menacing run to the section’s Division I title game last year, winning playoff games against Ridgeview 78-46 and Fresno-Bullard 79-49.
What happened in that final, then, was a bit of a shock: The Mustangs played Clovis West close for a half before the bigger, stronger and taller Golden Eagles romped to a 32-6 third-quarter run and an 87-50 victory.
“It surprised me a lot,” Sweat said. “I guess we got tired at the end.”
So can the fortuitous bounce of Smith right across town provide the missing link?
“That remains to be seen,” Stewart said. “I would like to say we’re better, but the bottom line is you’ve got to put it together. If we play our A game, we could definitely play with Clovis West. But I don’t know if we’ve done that for an entire game yet.”
Local opponents, at least, shudder at that thought.
