Kubasaki Dragons sophomore Kimi Cece (20) looks to pass the ball as Maki Shinzato (13) of the Naha Bears defends during Friday’s Okinawa-American League girls basketball season opener at Kubasaki High School, Camp Foster, Okinawa. The Bears routed the Dragons 98-60. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Compared to their dream 2003-04 season, Friday’s season opener seemed more like a nightmare for defending Far East High School Girls Class AA Basketball Tournament champion Kubasaki.
The Naha High Bears, a Japanese team, ravaged the Dragons with a full-court press, recording 29 steals, using a 17-0 first-quarter burst and steadily pulling away for a 98-60 victory at the Dragons’ Den.
“We saw a lot of good things out there, a lot of things we need to work on,” the Dragons’ ever-optimistic coach Bob Driggs said.
Friday’s opener came four days after Kubasaki began practice.
Several of the Dragons, including returning guards Erin Foote and Kristi McNair, were just coming off Kubasaki’s volleyball season.
To have Naha’s up-tempo game thrown right in Kubasaki’s faces after such little preparation was too much for the youthful Dragons, with plenty of new faces, to handle, Driggs said.
“Last year was a season to remember. We had a lot of experience,” he said of a squad that relied on its three tall players — Shanon Sumter, Shanea McDaniel and Ka’leen Mathieu — to clog things under the basket and dare opponents to beat them from outside.
Of that lot, only Mathieu remains, aided by senior backup Serafina Smith, an accomplished track and field star playing organized basketball for the first time.
“Our inexperience showed under the boards,” Driggs said. “Naha is a strong fundamental squad. Not too many of our kids have seen that kind of full-court man-to-man pressure.”
What began as a see-saw game became one-sided thanks to Naha’s first-quarter flurry. The Bears led by as many as 40 points down the stretch.
Foote scored eight of her game-high 22 points in the second quarter, while Mathieu contributed 18 points.
