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Kael RichardsonBasketball

SHAPE High School

Last week: Richardson, a senior guard who, according to sponsor Rick Renninger, “leads the team in floor burns,” demonstrated another aspect of his game last weekend. He scored 37 points in two games, a team-high 16 of them in Saturday’s title-clinching 72-70 double-overtime victory in Baumholder. Richardson, according to his coach, Steve Richardson, played with a 102-degree temperature in Friday’s 71-53 victory and with a 101 on Saturday. “I’m not usually a scorer,” said Richardson, who had been averaging around nine points per game. “Usually, I’m trying to get the ball to my teammates, but the shots were there.” In Saturday’s clincher, Richardson contributed far more than points — 11 steals, seven rebounds and four assists — and steadied the team down the stretch. He calmly directed the Spartans after two starters fouled out with four minutes to go to secure the victory that continued the team’s unbeaten season. “He’s one of the most intense competitors SHAPE has seen in a long time,” Renninger said.

Reliesha BurnsBasketball

Brussels High School

Last week: Burns, a senior guard, punctuated the final two home games of her three-year Brussels career by scoring 40 points on 18-for-33 shooting from the floor and grabbing 23 rebounds as the Lady Brigands completed their Division III-North title-winning campaign with a sweep of Alconbury. According to her coach, Dexter Bohn, Burns, who had missed the team’s previous two games with an injury, excelled on defense, too, with six total steals in Brussels’ 50-21 and 54-20 victories that closed out the Lady Brigands’ III-North run at 5-1. Bohn added that Burns is just one of the many scoring options balanced Brussels has: It also draws from Caitlin Quin, Kaitlyn Oppenheim and Elizabeth McVicker, and Burns benefits from the presence of so many capable players. Friday and Saturday, for example, Alconbury’s concentration on stopping Quinn opened the way for Burns. “... [S]he would be the first to give credit to her teammates for helping her to be so successful,” Bohn wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

— Selected by Stars and Stripes staff

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