By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Seattle Christian Schools Warriors girls basketball is off to a rip-roaring start this season, improving to 5-0 with a 55-19 win over visiting Tyee Monday.

"We have a good group of seniors, and a very exciting freshman class, and, a real good nucleus of sophomores and juniors," said Warriors coach, Dave Jansen.

The game against Tyee started out fairly close as the Totems players were listening to their coach, Amanda Segerman, saying things like, "Get your hands up" that she never quit saying all game to her team on the court.

And, through the first six minutes of the eight-minute first quarter, it was the Warriors on top but not by much, 11-6, to that point in the game.

And Jansen noticed his team was not doing so well in his mind, and he took out his five starters and put in five reserves from the bench. They helped the Warriors keep Tyee at bay offensively the final two minutes of the first quarter and assisted in moving the score to 13-6 on freshman Madeline Fors' jumper to end the first quarter of play.

Then, in the second quarter, Tyee scored the first and second baskets of that frame as junior point guard MaryRose Cadelina swished a 20-footer from just inside the three-point line and Maisy Donaldson, a freshman, hit a shot close-in, too, so that offense cut the Warriors' lead to 13-10 early on.

Sagerman's girls were listening to her with good defense, too, holding the Warriors to no scores the first couple minutes of the second quarter. But the Warriors' reserves got untracked then for one point. Senior Ashley Schroder made 1-for-2 from the free throw line, making it a 14-10 score.

And the Warriors kept on coming at the good-defending Totems, and broke through the rest of the second quarter on mostly fast break buckets as Fors scored again making it 16-10 Warriors. From there, coach Jansen re-inserted a lot of his starters the final four minutes of the second quarter. They scored six-straight buckets, all lay-ups, started in transition off breakaways. The Warriors' senior captain and 5-10 post Madelyn Weber scored two times and 5-6 freshman point guard Alexandria Ellis put the other bucket in off the glass, making it 22-10 Warriors after two quarters.

"The bench came in and woke us up, and then the starting group caught onto that energy," said Jansen. "But, that is a very scrappy Tyee team. You have to work hard and execute against them. My girls have to trust the offense, and they did, and that's what opened it up."

So the "mix" of classes Jansen aforementioned, all contributed by the end of the first and second quarters of the game versus the Totems.

And, in the third quarter, it was a good run of balanced scoring from the starting five as well as the bench players coming in and holding pretty well in there, too. The Warriors continued to open their lead to a bigger gap. With four minutes left, and the Warriors having outscored the Totems, 12-4, to open the third quarter, Ellis scored a mid-range shot that made it 34-14, Warriors. And then Weber made a shot inside the paint, upping the lead to 36-16. Ellis raised up and released a three-point shot, as the ball flew in a high-arc, rotating, and, swishing through the net, increasing the lead to 39-14. Then Ellis, not done yet in this scoring burst, made another short jumper to end the third quarter, 41-14, Warriors.
"Alex runs our offense well, she is a good ball handler and she has a very nice shot," said Jansen of the freshman.

This game, in the fourth quarter, just continued to be more hard work by both clubs, neither giving an inch defensively. But the power and speed and experience of the Warriors won out, with a 14-5 outscoring of the Totems in the fourth frame.

Ellis is an experienced player though a freshman for the Warriors. She plays AAU year-round basketball on the Auburn ECBA Swish when it's not high school basketball season. So Ellis knows the game and her experience helps to explain her fluid control of things on the court running the point for her team.

The Warriors finished last year's season around .500, and Ellis was not on the varsity last year because too young to play on the team.

This year's point guard position that belongs to Ellis belonged to someone else last year, who is still on the team.

"Better than what we had last year," said Weber, the senior who went on to explain, "I played point guard last year. I'm definitely better at forward."

Now that Ellis' arrived, Weber moved to her natural spot at the post inside the key, fighting for boards and being ready to make close-range shots off passes to the interior from Ellis.

"Alex does a good job controlling the ball and shooting the threes," said Weber.

Ellis is youthful, starting point guard, but if a former player's class distinction is any indication of support for Ellis, look at Lexi Petersen. She played point guard on the 2009 Warriors 1A state title team, as a sophomore. It was a championship season under their coach, Bob Kickner.

Petersen now is a junior at the University of Oregon, playing D-1 NCAA basketball, running the point there. So, that's pretty good proof the young Ellis' can do it, too, and, she knows what she needs to do to keep the game from moving too fast for her.

"Mostly, my role is to keep the team calm," said Ellis. "It seems like if the point guard goes out of control, the whole team falls apart."

Vital position, indeed, on any team, is the point guard. What's more, Jansen admitted the position's importance.

"Between point guard for Alex and post for Madelyn, we have the two most important positions covered," said Jansen. "But I will say, too, the whole team is playing as a team, bonding, and that's how you win."
Weber's the captain, and, she scored 10 points in the game against the Totems. She spoke about others before herself, mentioning those that helped get the starters "awakened" in the first quarter.

"They definitely picked us up and pushed the rest of us to work harder," said Weber of the reserves who were in this game -- Naomi Kipp, Carlee Ronish, Fors, May and Schroder -- all sent out as a five-some when the starters came out of the game, in the first quarter, and again holding their own in the third quarter, too, and again in the fourth, against the Totems.

And besides all that, Weber liked to talk about her coach when the name came up.

"He's coached me all four years," said Weber of coach Jansen. "I"ve been able to form a relationship with him and build muscle memory off running the same plays. And he's able to throw in new plays to help us out of the kinks."

Ellis added that assistant Casey Ribera has done things too.

"Coach Casey has helped us realize the team aspect, with the team motto -- stay inside the ropes," said Ellis.

And the team, what's different from last year's "average" team?

"Definitely, our aggression," said Weber. "People are willing to drive the hole. Just that aggression, we didn't have it last year. Grit."

And so being a Christian private school there's unique aspects to its curriculum. Like their belief in Jesus Christ, and He's spoken of, too, by this SCS school.

"We pray before our games," said Weber.

Added Ellis, nodding her head, "Before every game."

"And, we pray at practice, too," said Weber.

So, this season looks like it's definitely not on a wing and a prayer, so to speak. It's got talent at two key spots on the court with Ellis and Weber, and the other bench players will fill in nicely for these two starters, and, the other three starters--Taelor Willhoite, Abby Louie and Kelli Ronish.

Time will tell if Jansen can get his team back to playoffs, which is where they've not been in three seasons of Warriors basketball.

"We are much improved," said Jansen. "We are looking to this year to make it back to the playoffs. We've just missed the playoffs the last two seasons, and I think we've learned from that we have to work harder, push more to get there."

For Tyee, Cadelina scored a team-high 11 points and freshman Sierra Brooks added six.