Monday, February 26, 2001

By Rusty Bryan
Stars and Stripes

Michael Abrams / S&S Ramstein's tournament MVP Tanya West eyes the basket as she goes up for a shot against Heidelberg's Tomyriam Crutches, left, in Ramstein's 45-38 Division I final win over the Lions. Crutches also made the Division I all-tournament team.

MANNHEIM, Germany — Just as they did a year ago, the Ramstein Lady Royals let their title game foes hang around until the very end.

Unlike last year, however, there was no buzzer-beating shot at the end, as Ramstein downed Heidelberg 45-38 for its third European big schools girls basketball championship in four years.

This one looked at first as if it were going to be easy. The Lady Royals burst out to a 16-3 lead in the first eight minutes behind the scoring of tourney MVP Tanya West. She was 3-for-3 from the floor in the first period en route to a game-high 17 points, despite some early butterflies.

"I was a little more nervous for this game than a regular one," she said, perhaps remembering last season’s last-second disappointment to Kaiserslautern.

But coach Bob Ermel had just the antidote for nerves.

"We came out trying to work really hard," West said.

In Ramstein’s case, working hard means pressing everyone everywhere. In this case, the resulting 13-point edge proved to be enough even when the Lady Lions refused to wilt.

Instead of permitting the Lady Royals their usual 20 points in the second and third periods, Heidelberg tightened up on defense and allowed Ramstein just a total to 14 in those periods to close the gap to seven points at the end of the third quarter.

The Lady Lions, however, could get no closer than that, despite being in the bonus for the final 7:15 of the game.

Part of that was due to the absence of all-tourney scoring star Monica Jefferson, who had to leave the game with an injury.

Ramstein, meanwhile, got back on track offensively, with a 15-point final stanza built around getting West, who scored eight of her team’s final 19 points, a few more touches. Shayla Gatlin’s three-point play and a big putback bucket by Ashley Schalz also helped ice the decision.

All-tourney player Monique Johnson ended with nine points, and sophomore center Jaimee McDowell added six more points and stoically endured a pounding in the middle.

Heidelberg’s Tomyriam Crutches finished with 12 points, and fellow senior Jessica Burger completed her late-season scoring surge with a 10-point effort.

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