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The Storm enter District 13 play with a 3 game win streak. They were knocked out of the tournament by Ruskin in a close 46-48 game.

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10 Under the Radar

Candace Buckner

The Kansas City Star

Kelley Murphy

6-0 junior forward, Notre Dame de Sion (10-7)

It was easy for Murphy to go unnoticed last year when high-profile teammates Anna Florzak (Iowa State) and Morgan Henderson (San Diego) were leading the show. But now Murphy is a veteran, a first-year starter and deserving of the spotlight. She’s a double-double waiting to happen. Murphy may have played her best this season against Lee’s Summit on Jan. 24, when she scored 18 points when standout Danielle Adams mainly defended her. Murphy’s 10 points and 10 rebounds per game have helped the Storm to a winning record.

Patriots ready to forget

By Bill Althaus

The Examiner

Shelley Lauber has a 24-hour rule with her Truman High School girls basketball team.

 Win or lose,youforget about the game within 24 hours.

After watching her Patriots sleepwalk through a 47-43 non-conference home loss to Notre Dame de Sion Wednesday night, Lauber changed the rule.

"I'm forgetting about this one the minute I walk out this gymnasium door," she said, after a lackluster fourth quarter and 23 turnovers against a soft zone defense left her ready to climb the walls.

"I'd call a timeout and I usually have 100 things to say," Lauber added, "but tonight, I couldn't come up with anything. The kids were flat and there was nothing we could do about it.

"How many turnovers did we have in the fourth quarter, alone?"

The Patriots (15-6) turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions with the score tied at 39 in the final period.

Stacey Butts had three blocked shots, grabbed numerous rebounds and dominated play inside - but nothing positive came of it in the fourth quarter.

"There was just no tempo to the entire game, especially the fourth quarter," said Butts, who finished with a game-high 19 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. "Our strength is an up-tempo game, and they slowed the pace down and we couldn't do anything. That's what we were just talking about in the locker room.

"They didn't play great defense against us, we were sloppy with the ball and never got into our offense in the fourth quarter. It's the type of game you just want to forget about."

It should be a different story tonight when the Patriots travel to William Chrisman to play their Noland Road rivals before what is expected to be a capacity crowd.

"Thank goodness we play Thursday night, so none of us have to think about this game," Lauber said. "It was honestly, the strangest game I've ever coached.

"It was tied, or a one- or two-point game the entire fourth quarter, and it felt like a running clock."

The Storm came out gunning from long range and used five first-half 3-pointers to take a 29-24 lead into halftime.

"We talked at the half about shutting down their 3-pointers, and we did that," Butts said, after the Storm hit just one 3-pointer in the second half. "But we didn't have any intensity. This is a game that doesn't really hurt us, because it's not a conference game, but we can look back on it and know it's one we could have won."

With 4:32 left in the third quarter, guard Jayme Smith hit the Patriots' lone 3-pointer on the night to give Truman its first lead of the game, 32-31.

"We got that lead, even though it was just a one-point lead, and it seemed like we got comfortable," Butts said. "I don't know, it's just hard to explain what happened tonight.

"If we don't play better tomorrow night, we're going to be in trouble."

Turnovers have been the Patriots' Achilles heel this entire season, and Lauber is seeking an answer to the dilemma.

"I could understand 23 turnovers in a game, say, against a tough, man-to-man team like Fort Osage," Lauber said. "But they play that zone and we just throw the ball right in their hands."

The Storm scored eight points in the fourth quarter, but the Patriots didn't score until Butts hit a layup with just 57 seconds left.

"I wish I had an answer for what happened," Lauber said, "but I don't."

Bailey Brenton added 11 points for the Patriots.

Stacey Shultz led Sion with 14 points and Erin Murphy and Teressa Turner each added 11.

Defense sparks Cats into title game

By The Examiner staff

SHAWNEE, Kan. - Blue Springs won a defensive battle to reach the finals of the Metro Classic at Bishop Miege.

The Wildcats will face host Miege at 8 tonight for the championship.

Playing its fourth game in seven days, the Wildcats (12-2) decided to slow Wednesday's game down against Notre Dame de Sion. The plan worked, as the Wildcats won 37-31.

"This was our fourth game in seven days with no practice in between," Wildcats coach Tony Armstrong said. "It was hard to get out and press. We played more half-court and played really good half-court defense. They played really good half-court defense, and we made some plays."

One of the big playmakers was guard Drew Roberts, who scored 14 points, including a key 3-pointer late in the game to build the lead to six points.

"They were having a hard time scoring, so six points was a huge lead," Armstrong said.

Bryonna Snow added 12 points for Blue Springs.

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GIRLS BASKETBALL

By CANDACE BUCKNER

The Kansas City Star

Posted January 17, 2007

When Notre Dame de Sion returned to Earth this season, reminders of the Storm’s past otherworldly girls basketball success followed.

Last year, Sion earned national respect, invitations to elite tournaments and fear from Missouri Class 5 opponents. But after the Storm’s runner-up finish in the state championship game, the high rankings and top metro status, coach Mike Dunn brought back a younger, less experienced team, although Sion’s 2006-07 schedule didn’t seem to care.

With a 6-4 as of Tuesday, Sion has played Columbia Hickman twice, Liberty, Lee’s Summit West and Pembroke Hill. This week, the Storm takes part in the Bishop Miege tournament.

“I’d like to see anybody who would want to exchange schedules with me,” Dunn joked. “I’m surprised we’ve done this well considering that nine girls didn’t have varsity experience coming into the season.”

Sion starts two freshmen -- Teresa Turner and Courtney Cannon, who combined for 26 of the team’s 41 points in a victory last Tuesday -- and regularly plays four other underclassmen. That’s easily the most underclassmen Dunn has ever had on a varsity team.

“It’s fun, nobody considered us to be a team after losing six seniors,” Dunn said. “I think everybody wrote us off, (thinking) ‘They couldn’t do that anymore.’ These girls are proving to themselves that they can play.”

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Sion girls play like veterans

With only one senior, team bounces back from big loss with victory over Jefferson City.

By STUART GOLDMAN

Special to The Star

Posted on Sat, Jan. 06, 2007

After losing by 33 points Wednesday to second-ranked Columbia Hickman, a young Notre Dame de Sion girls team had something to prove Friday night.

In front of a homecoming crowd that included members of last year’s Missouri Class 5 second-place team, the Storm sent the home folks happy with a 49-35 win over Jefferson City, which finished third last year in Class 5.

Sion, which graduated six seniors and returned only one player with varsity experience, improved to 4-4.

“Our team was so strong last year, it was fun to get in front of those girls and show them how much we’ve improved,” said Sion junior Kelley Murphy, who scored 10 of her game-high 14 points in the second half. “During practice (last year) we used to get beat up by them all the time.”

After a so-so start, the Storm got a boost at the end of the first quarter. Murphy missed two free throws, but after an Erin Spangler rebound, Murphy hit a jumper as time expired for a 14-9 Sion lead.

The buzzer-beater was part of a 12-0 run that gave the Storm a 22-9 lead against the Jays, who had graduated eight seniors.

Sion led 28-12 at halftime after shooting a blistering 60 percent (12 of 20) from the field.

Jefferson City, 5-4, had chances to pull closer in the third quarter. But foul trouble and poor shooting plagued the Jays, who shot 27 percent.

Teresa Turner and Stacey Shultz added 10 points apiece for Sion. Shultz scored seven in the pivotal second quarter.

Turner, a 5-foot-5 freshman point guard, may remind Storm fans of another diminutive point guard, Erica Grimaldi, who helped the Storm win the 2001 state title.

“The first thing I said to (Sion) coach (Mike) Dunn was, ‘She looks like Erica Grimaldi,’ ” said Kristen White, the lone senior for the Storm.

“She has probably more mental toughness of a freshman than I’ve seen in a long time.”

Kathryn Ommen scored 11 points, and Jayme Chapman added 10 for Jefferson City.

There’s no rest for the weary for Sion, which plays host today to Jefferson City Helias.

“For us, I don’t think it really mattered who we were going to play tonight,” Dunn said.

“We needed to bounce back, get back into the spring of things. We haven’t played at home since November.”

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Stand and deliver

KC Community News

By: Mark Dewar, Sports Editor

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

CLUTCH ... Notre Dame de Sion sophomore Stacey Schultz is one of the top free throw shooters in the greater Kansas City area. She has connected on 82 percent of her free throw attempts during the young 2006-2007 season for the Storm.

Notre Dame de Sion sophomore Stacey Schultz eyes the basket and steadies the basketball at eye level above her right shoulder during a holiday team practice session at the high school. In so doing, suddenly she looks a little like a waiter at a high-end restaurant.

Then she delivers. As usual. Swish. Swish. Swish.

The free throwing ace on what is an outstanding free throwing squad - the Storm shoots at nearly a 75 percent clip as a team - sees her fourth attempt rim off.
 

The fifth? The world is back on its axis. Schultz's fifth try tickles the net, tear dropping its way through the cords in the manner of the first three.
 

Right on schedule. This 5-10 forward lives in an admirable world of four out of five at the foul stripe these days. The 82-percent free thrower has drained 18 of 22 attempts this young season for the Storm, 3-3 at the holiday break.
 

Then again, pretty much everything around this camp is young and new. Established stars Morgan Henderson and Anna Florzak were among six senior departures, opening the road for this new-look Sion version under third-year head coach Mike Dunn.

Through it all there has been no real calm before the Storm in attacking a brutal schedule. This younger version has continued to scrap in its successful Sion tradition under Dunn, advancing all the way to the championship game of the Blue Springs Tournament just prior to the holiday break before succumbing to Columbia-Hickman 64-43.
 

The Storm will resume its schedule with a rematch at Columbia-Hickman on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
 

As for the play of Schultz, "She's doing a great job," Dunn said. The 16-year-old Leawood resident is averaging 11 points, five rebounds and four steals per contest.
 

"When we started the season, we didn't have one girl with varsity experience on the bench or on the floor," Dunn said. "I think she kind of realized that she was going to have to step up and play a different role that maybe a lot of sophomores don't have to worry about. She's done a real good job with that, knowing that she's going to have to be a scorer and somewhat of a floor leader."

Jill McCaffrey, a 5-8 junior shooting guard, echoed the coach's sentiment, adding, "We always can depend on Stacey on the floor. She's really scrappy ... one of the top players on the team."

The Sun caught up to Schultz, the daughter of Rick and Mary Schultz and whose brother, Sam, is a 6-1 starting junior guard for Rockhurst High, in hopes this young Sion starter could provide a primer on free throwing for others in the area looking up at her 82 percent.
 

Q. Stacey, Shaquille O'Neal has been bad, very bad, at the foul stripe again, so Shaq has to sit in timeout and listen to your seminar on foul shooting. What is the very first thing we are going to emphasize in the lesson?
 

A. To use your legs for power and arch the ball when shooting.
 

Q. We'll keep that thought going. What are the single biggest keys to successful foul shooting? Break them down for us.
 

A. First, to be focused on the shot and not what's going on around you. And second, take a breath to gather yourself before shooting so the shot isn't rushed.
 

Q. All of the foul-shooting gurus speak to the importance of sticking with a familiar routine at the foul line. What is yours?
 

A. I spin the ball out in front of me, dribble twice and then spin it to myself again.
 

Q. Just where, exactly, does your eye travel when you line up a foul shot? Are you aiming for any certain area within the most critical area - the hoop?
 

A. Some people will aim for the front of the rim or the back of it, but I just focus on the hoop itself.
 

Q. Where does your mind travel during a foul shot?
 

A. When I'm shooting a foul shot, I don't really have to think about it that much because I've done it so many times, but it always helps to remind myself to arch my shot so it's not flat.
 

Q. They called ex-NBA star Karl Malone "The Mailman." As the legendary story goes, during a big Sunday game once, Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen allegedly walked across the lane and muttered to Malone, "Mailman don't deliver on Sunday!" Malone bricked the shot. Has anyone ever successfully made it inside your head prior to a critical free throw? What happened?
 

A. No one has ever gotten inside my head prior to a critical free throw. You can't let others psych you out. You have to stay focused on the shot and not what's going on around you at that time.
 

Q. My buddy Calvin Thompson starred at KU in the 1980s and achieved the Jayhawks free throwing record for consecutive makes. He speaks of times in practice where he has hit 180 in a row and shruggingly says of foul shooting, "It's just concentration." Cal makes it sound so easy. Do you believe we make free throw shooting too hard?
 

A. I believe he is completely right. When you think about something for too long you put pressure on yourself, and that's what causes you to miss a lot of the time.
 

Q. Have you kept track of how many in a row you have made in practice or a game setting? What do you consider your record?
 

A. I have no idea. I haven't really ever tried to see how many I can make in a row. Usually when I practice, I will shoot about 10 in a row in between drills that I am working on.
 

Q. Away from Storm practices, what is your free throw practice regimen? How many in a session? Clearly it is working.
 

A. When I practice by myself I will first start out shooting from different spots and doing different moves so I can get a little tired before shooting them and it's more like a game situation.
 

Q. Storm coach Mike Dunn does not strike me as a guy who would put up with too much Shaq-ing at the foul stripe. What does the Storm team do in practice to keep the free throwing drills light, fun ... yet still effective?
 

A. Before practice ends, we will all line up at half court and each girl will shoot. For every miss we have to run, and we do this until every girl on the team has shot. Everyone is always tired at the end of practice, so you really rely on your teammates to make their free throws so you won't have to run.
 

Q. What is your single proudest experience in a game at the foul stripe?
 

A. There were about 10 seconds left in the game and we were down two, and I made both of my free throws to put our team into overtime.
 

Q. In a junior high game I played in once, I saw a gangly kid on the other team miss the entire backboard standard - everything - and hit the brick wall to the left of it. You could hear a pin drop in our gym for five minutes. No one could believe it. What is the funniest thing you have ever seen at the foul stripe? It can be something you did or something you witnessed.
 

A. I haven't really ever seen anything too funny at the foul line, but when girls bank their shots in and then act as if they meant to make it that way it is always amusing to me.
 

Q. Did you have a natural talent for foul shooting from an early age, or did your percentage take a real leap up at some point through practice?
 

A. I was an OK free throw shooter when I was younger, but now that I am little older and understand how important they can be, I practice them a lot more then I did when I was younger. So ultimately, I'm making more.
 

Q. Have you ever worked with a shooting or foul shooting guru yourself? And if so, did it help?
 

A. (Former Kansas City Kings star) Scott Wedmen is a shooting guru to me, and he taught me how to shoot when I was younger, which helped me a lot with my free throws.
 

Q. Is there a pro, college or area high school player whose free throwing you particularly admire? Who are your free throwing stars?
 

A. I admire all of the girls on my team for their free throw shooting. There isn't one girl on the team I would call a bad free throw shooter, because they all make the majority of their free throws.
 

Q. You are long on a free throw. What is your adjustment?
 

A. I try to arc the ball more.
 

Q. You are short on a free throw. What is your adjustment?
 

A. I try to use my legs more to get more power for a better shot. And overall, I try to practice them as much as I can and do the same routine every time to gain muscle memory.
 

Q. State championship game. Storm down one. Schultz fouled in the act of shooting with .9 ticks left on the clock. She steps to the line and drains the first. Take us the rest of the way.
 

A. That's the type of game where concentration is the key. In that situation, I would just have to take a deep breath and concentrate on the shot - and hopefully make the winning shot of the game.