Centennial turns attention toward No. 4

Adam Candee

Monday, March 1, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

RENO -- The victory that earned a third consecutive 4A state title for the Centennial girls' basketball team possessed all the beauty and grace of a slobbering St. Bernard diving into a freshly cracked can of Alpo.

Yet the Bulldogs' 68-63 triumph against Reno in Friday night's championship game at Lawlor Events Center epitomized the qualities that will drive the program toward a fourth consecutive championship in 2005: hunger, tenacity and fearlessness.

"There is nothing that can faze us," Centennial junior guard Ashley Blake said. "If we lose, it's only because we beat ourselves."

Plenty of obstacles blocked Centennial's path to this third title in a game as tough as any that the Bulldogs (31-2) have faced during their championship runs.

There was the massive first-half foul trouble, with three Bulldogs picking up their third fouls. There were the supercharged Huskies (23-8), refusing to back down and even taking a brief lead in the midst of the jawing and borderline cheap shots that resulted in 30 personal and three technical fouls between the teams before halftime.

"A lot of talking, a lot of fouls," Blake said of the first half.

But Centennial, cool and collected after surviving challenging title games against Douglas and Bishop Gorman in the past two years, never wavered as Reno chipped at the lead in the fourth quarter. No Bulldogs fouled out and their trademark balanced scoring returned, a night after Italee Lucas broke the 4A state record with 42 points against Reed, as six Centennial players scored at least eight points.

"Coach told us that just because you have fouls, you don't become less aggressive," Price said. "You don't become less aggressive, you just become smarter."

Blake and Price lead a core of juniors, including Whitley Cox, Sierra Chambers and Jordyn Bowen, which will look to cap an amazing four-year run next season with Lucas and Kristina Klein helping shape a formidable roster again.

Price still remembers the first championship -- the one that Blake still considers the most special of all.

"We didn't know nothing about state, coming from middle school," Price said. "When we got here, it was like, this is something we can do because we noticed that all the other teams were so old. It's like, we won it our freshman year so we can keep on doing it."

Centennial coach Karen Weitz feels a special attachment to the junior group that is the foundation of the program that has lost just one game to in-state competition in the past three seasons.

"We already said that we're not ready for that banquet someday," Weitz said. "We know every banquet every year is hard, but that banquet is going to be tough."

Her players are already making plans for that night to be a celebration of title No. 4.

"I've got one more to win next year, and then I'll be cool," Blake said.

Not so fast, Weitz said. The team will take about a month off before resuming their typical grueling schedule of workouts and practices through the spring, summer and fall.

"Those nuts, they'll get humbled again before they start working on number four," Weitz said. "We'll let them enjoy it tonight. We at least give them a little bit of time to have fun."

In the midst of another celebration, though, a temporary break from that humility seemed OK as the Bulldogs enjoy the reward for their hard work.

"Every year, they want to come and beat us, especially the Northern teams against the Southern teams," Price said. "They feel that it belongs to them; we feel that it belongs to us. We got it, so obviously, it belongs to us."