some clips on Destinee Oberg (2019) commit

[flippinhogmana]

https://youtu.be/2dZSLjJ3EKY?t=96  This clip is older

long clip from last year  https://youtu.be/o4sKIsH7Jsw?t=36

this third one has clips from this year.  In some of them she looks better than others - on some she runs the floor, expands her range and even shoots some threes.  She is basically averaging a double double and has since last year.  Some of her competition as you can see is inferior, would like to see her against topflight competition and see what she can do there, but she is still only a junior. 

http://www.hudl.com/profile/8747536

[flippinhogmana]

For the fifth consecutive season, the Holy Angels and Richfield girls basketball teams squared off with their seasons on the line.

The Stars, the top seed in Section 3AAA, and the Spartans, the fourth seed in Section 3AAA, won their first games of the section tournament and, in a win or go home setting, faced off in the section semifinal game.

Holy Angels began the game on a 14-0 run and did not look back, as the Stars earned an 83-59 victory over the Spartans March 3.

"I feel like we were ready for everything," Holy Angels point guard Alex Walker said. "They came out really powerful, but we just dominated on offense and fast breaks."

After a slow start with the 14-0 run, Richfield fought back and played to a 28-26 deficit the rest of the half.

"We talked about at the beginning of the game to do what we do best," Richfield head girls basketball coach Pam Quiram said. "We came out not doing that, certain people were trying to do more than they usually do, and that's not the goal.

"Once we got through that, and got past the nerves, we decided we were going to play like we have been playing for the last few weeks."

Holy Angels head girls basketball coach Dan Woods, knowing Richfield would not fall without a fight, told his team to prepare for a run from the Spartans.

"You have to treat all your opponents the same, regardless of records and stuff," Woods said. "Whenever you look at them, go back and look at their Cooper game, a 10-point game, so I told them they had to be ready.

"We told them to not let their record fool you, their conference is much harder than our conference."

Destinee Oberg, who just returned in time for section play, led the Stars with 24 points, while Megan Meyer scored 13 points, Walker added 12 points and Riley Thalhuber contributed 10 points.

Oberg believes that her absence helped the team build quality depth.

"Sometimes I was in foul trouble and those couple times they started to get really chippy," Oberg said. "Now I feel they have matured and know how to play together without me being there."

Woods echoed his star forward's statement.

"[Losing Destinee] had to be one of the best things that could have happened to us," Woods said. "The silver lining was the fact that all the other girls found out they could do more and take themselves to a higher level.

"Over that stretch of time we lost only one game and we played some pretty good teams."

Richfield was led by eighth-grader Selam Maher's 27 points, while senior Breanna Wendland added 18 points.

"We played them before and the outcome wasn't good," Wendland said. "At practice we said it was just another team, but then we got out here and took a step back.

"We then knew we had to step up and believe we could beat them."

End of the road

While the loss to Holy Angels marked the end of the 2017-18 season for Richfield, the Spartans have to be pleased with the progress they made this season.

Richfield, for the first time since the 2014-15 season, won a game at the section tournament.

"They were really excited," Quiram said. "It was fun to have some kids, some fans in the stands, and they ran over there because they knew it had been a while.

"It was great leadership, we have great leadership this year and they knew we had to keep working. Our leaders kept saying we still had sections and they did not quit."

The loss to Holy Angels ended the Richfield careers of seniors Mikayla Hallow-Tyler, Wendland, Tenzin Dekyi, Ashlyn Jones, and Brianna O'Donnell. In her two years with the program, Quiram has been pleased with how her seniors have pushed the team to new heights.

"We have talked a lot about how far they have come over the last two years," Quiram said. "The belief they have in themselves that they didn't have last year, last year we spent a lot of time building the chemistry here, making it positive and getting more kids out for the program.

"This year we have just gotten better. At times they got frustrated with the lack of wins, but from last year getting beat by 45 and this year taking a team to overtime, they recognize how far they have come."

The Spartans, over the last few weeks, have come to realize how far they have come.

"Coming from freshman year and how all of us were scared playing to see how much we have all grown up has been cool," Hallow-Tyler said. "I have played with Bre since fourth-grade and I have seen them become the great basketball players they are.

"When it ended I was just happy to play with some of my best friends."

The younger players in the program, including Maher, wanted to do what they could to extend the seniors' final run.

"Every second it felt that we had to do this for the seniors," Maher said. "We had to do something for them, and I'm so proud of everything they have done.

"Even though we didn't win we went down with a fight."

Richfield ended the season with a 4-23 record.

Looking forward

With the victory, Holy Angels earned the right to defend its Section 3AAA title, an honor the Stars have earned for the last two seasons. In order to do that, Oberg feels the Stars will just have to do more of the same.

"I feel like we will just keep trying to do what we did these last two games," Oberg said. "We have more than a couple star players, we have an unselfish team and people know whose games are theirs and we know when to give up the ball."

Woods feels his team will always have an advantage over its opponent because of the sheer talent he has on the roster.

"The biggest piece for us is playing as a unit, we're harder to defend now," Woods said. "The depth we have built has taken us to another level. Who do you want to stop?

"This week they will probably defend Destinee more, but people forget Frankie [Vascellaro] had a season-high of 31, Megan Meyer has had 24, Alex Walker has had 17 and 18, pick one of those if you want to."

Holy Angels will play in the Section 3AAA title game against Simley at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8, at Jefferson High School.