3A Opening Round Standouts (Pt 1)

The 3A tournament has begun with four teams punching their tickets to the next round and avoiding elimination. Check out some standouts from the opening round of action.    The long guard was efficient from the floor, shooting 5-for-10 on the night, showing good touch in close and dropping in one 3-pointer. She used her length to impact the game on the glass too, bringing down five boards, and racked up five stocks, showing her two-way ability on the way to the win.     Curits had a huge game in a win over Decatur, finishing with 17 points, six rebounds, and four steals. She started the game off with big energy on the defensive end, racking up deflections and pokes on her way to the four steals. Did a great job using her speed to get out in front of the defense in transition for easy buckets too.     In their 67-23 win over Decatur, Dollar didn't need to score much, instead impacting the game in various other ways. She finished the game with three points, six rebounds, four assists, and two steals. She's a calming presence at the point who set her teammates up and kept the offense in a good flow in the half-court.     This Garfield team relied heavily on Lewis to spark their offense without their other star player, [player_tooltip player_id='391867' first='Sarah' last='Lessig']. Lewis was not only an outstanding playmaker throughout the game, she also showed incredible fight and perseverance to attack the hoop, rack up offensive rebounds, and play strong with the ball. She was in a different gear than most everyone else on the floor and showed some real toughness in the close-fought victory.     Most came up huge in their final run in the fourth quarter. She applied great pressure on the ball, forcing a couple of steals and tying up a ballhandler for a jump ball that went their way. She was also able to convert some of those turnovers into quick points going the other way. She set up teammates for a couple assists, and went to the line to put the game out of reach in the final few seconds.     Usitalo shot the ball extremely well in their close loss to Garfield. She dropped in a few threes, anticipated passes at the top to grab some steals and go the other way, and did a great job anticipating traps to find open teammates two passes away and avoid some of the pressure that plagued Shorecrest throughout the game.     Robinson is a super quick guard who can handle the rock. Bellevue brought the pressure defensively throughout the game and her ability to quickly rotate and get active on double-teams and dead balls was huge in their win over Auburn Mountainview. She also did a good job attacking down the lane and drawing some fouls inside.     Johnson plays with great speed and part of that is her long strides and ability to glide past defenders in space. She was excellent at stepping through and around defenders to get to the hoop, using that long stride to get some room around the rim for layup after layup. Worked to the foul line too and was a big part of their defensive effort with her pace and length.     Big in their win over Auburn Mountainview. Was a constant presence in the paint and did a great job sniffing out gaps with her patience, then bursting through and working to space for shots. Added a lot of pace and shiftiness to their halfcourt offense and was a key penetrator.

The 3A tournament has begun with four teams punching their tickets to the next round and avoiding elimination. Check out some standouts from the opening round of action.