Talisa Rhea lights up Pac-10 women's basketball record book
Published Thursday, November 20, 2008
FAIRBANKS — A college basketball player getting excited and prepared for a season opener is as common as an icy winter road in Fairbanks.
Hands are anxious, legs are springy and the heart beats passionately on the opening tip-off of a new season.
Talisa Rhea probably experienced all of the above on Sunday for Oregon State University against Sacramento State in Corvallis, Ore. She also had an experience unlike any other women’s player in Pacific-10 Conference basketball history.
The former Juneau-Douglas High School star drained 10 3-point shots on the way to scoring 42 points in a 100-45 rout of the Big Sky Conference team from California.
Rhea’s long-distance connections set a Pac-10 record for 3-pointers made in a game and her 19 attempts from beyond the arc became a conference standard, too.
Fittingly, she was named the Pac-10 Women’s Player of the Week on Monday.
Oregon State head coach LaVonda Williams said her 5-foot-11 sophomore guard just had good looks at the baskets and effective screens from her teammates.
“She had seven 3-pointers in the first half, and she only needed three more in the second half,’’ Williams said Tuesday from Corvallis. “They set screens to get her open, and it was satisfying that she broke the record.’’
Rhea, though, treated the game like business as usual at Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum. She didn’t wake up Sunday morning with visions of treys dancing in her head, nor was she planning to score 42 points. That output became the fourth-highest in a single game in Oregon State women’s history.
“I just came in and executed what we had been talking about before the game, and I wasn’t thinking about hitting 10 3-pointers,’’ Rhea said Monday from Corvallis.
Rhea finished the game 14-for-24 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. She also had five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 30 minutes of action.
The consummate team player thought about the rest of the Beavers after she learned that she has a special place in the annals of Pac-10 women’s basketball.
“It’s a pretty big personal achievement, but it’s a team achievement, too,’’ Rhea said.
Rhea came off the screens to either launch treys or attempt mid-range jumpers.
“If anyone sets a record, it’s good for the whole team,’’ she said. “It wouldn’t have happened if my teammates had not supported me and got the ball to me. I give all the credit to my teammates.’’
She gives credit, too, to Juneau-Douglas head coach Leslie Knight and Dorena Bingham of Anchorage, for whom Rhea played on summer traveling teams, which helped her get noticed by Oregon State coaches.
“They helped me a lot,’’ the three-time Alaska State Girls Player of the Year said. “Class 4A basketball was the best in Alaska, and we (Juneau-Douglas) were lucky enough to make the state championship game every year. We played against the best teams in the state and I played in the summer with club teams that played all around the country.
“All the information that coach Knight and other coaches shared with me helped make me the player that I’ve become.’’
She was Ken and Barbara Rhea’s bouncing little girl in 1992, when Stanford’s Molly Goodenbour set a Pac-10 record of nine 3-pointers in a game against Tennessee. Talisa Rhea was a sixth grader in Juneau when another Stanford player, Lindsey Yamasaki, hit nine treys against Washington in 2001 to match Goodenbour’s mark.
Last season as a freshman, Rhea produced 67 3-point baskets for the season for Oregon State, moving her to second place for single-season treys in Beavers history.
Sunday’s season-opener seems like a carryover from last season.
“She’s made an impact,’’ Williams said. “I think she’s worked on expanding her game — putting the ball on the floor, taking a few dribbles and trying to hit the mid-range shots. She’s definitely a 3-point specialist, though.’’
The Pac-10 record speaks for itself.
CAMPUS TRAILS: Sophomore guard and Lathrop graduate Dominique Smith scored the first field goal for the Academy of Art of San Francisco’s men’s basketball team and led the Urban Knights in scoring in their inaugural game, an 86-61 exhibition loss at San Francisco State last Thursday. Smith’s 14 points included the program’s first field goal at the 18:22 mark of the first half. He also grabbed seven rebounds ... Sophomore forward and Monroe Catholic grad Melissa Rima contributed two rebounds, an assist and a block in seven-minute stint for the Boise State women in Sunday’s 68-59 win over Portland (Ore.) in Boise, Idaho ... Merrimack junior guard Casey Miller, a West Valley alumna, had nine points and two rebounds in Saturday’s season-opening loss to Adelphi in a women’s game in Garden City, N.Y.
• USC, which includes freshman midfielder and South Anchorage graduate Carly Butcher, downed Boston University 2-0 last Thursday in Provo, Utah, in a first-round game of the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament. In a second-round game last Saturday in Provo, Butcher had two shots in a 2-1 shootout win over Brigham Young. USC, last year’s national champion, advanced to a third-round showdown against Los Angeles rival UCLA on Saturday.
• Wyoming senior linebacker Ward Dobbs from West Valley registered 14 tackles last Thursday, the second-highest total in a 22-14 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas in a Mountain West Conference football game. Senior wide receiver and East Anchorage grad Casey Flair had four catches for 40 yards for host UNLV ... Eielson grad and redshirt freshman safety Nick Rogers had a tackle for Central Washington in a 49-42 loss to West Texas A&M in a first-round NCAA Division II playoff game in Canyon, Texas ... Senior tight end and Lathrop grad Brock Graziadei had two catches for 18 yards in last Saturday’s 17-14 win over McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.
• Buffalo junior and North Pole grad Scott Woster won the 200 butterfly in 1 minute, 57.23 seconds and swam the third leg of the winning 400 medley relay (3:33.29) during a 130-109 win over Ball State in a Mid-American Conference men’s swimming dual meet in Muncie, Ind., on Nov. 8 ... South Dakota State senior Cade Roberts, a West Valley alumnus, won the 50-yard freestyle in 22.71 seconds during a 145-86 loss to Wisconsin-Green Bay in Brookings, S.D. on Nov. 7 ... Denver sophomore Caleb Severns, a Lathrop grad, placed second in the men’s 200 individual medley (1:57.81) during a 105-89 win over Pacific in Denver on Nov. 8.
¨• Alaska Anchorage left wing Nick Haddad of Fairbanks had an assist in last Friday’s 3-2 upset of 18th-ranked North Dakota in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game in Grand Forks, N.D. ... Senior goaltender and South Anchorage grad Jordan Pearce had 20 saves for ninth-ranked Notre Dame in a 5-2 win over Lake Superior in last Saturday’s Central Collegiate Hockey Association game in Notre Dame, Ind.
Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586 or dmartin@newsminer.com.
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Very good story on Talisa Rhea, Danny!
Sure wish we could bottle some of her talent, drive and determination, and inject it into Girls high school basketball here in the Interior.
I got a first hand look at Talisa Rhea when I was an Assistant Girls Basketball Coach at Lathrop High School.
We played a two game series against Juneau-Douglas, down in Juneau during the 2003-2004 season.
Rhea, a Freshman at the time tore us to pieces.
We had no one....not seniors Kari Reabold, Erika Stevens or junior Sheena Brown....NO ONE that could handle her alone.
Thank goodness she didn't get much help from her teammates, and we won both games.
When they came North to the Interior in 04-05 to play Lathrop, we put Sheena's twin sister Shanna Brown (our defensive stopper at the time) on her, and Shanna shut her down.
Once again, Lathrop won.
My approach to stopping Juneau during her career was simple. Keep Talisa Rhea away from the ball. Make someone else score.
That approach was effective enough that West Valley Girls Coach Steve Cacari asked me how to keep this very talented young lady in check when they made their trip down to play Juneau in the 05-06 ASAA State tournament.
Coach Cacari had Whitne' Blackburn, who closely resembled Shanna athletically in his fold. I said "put Whitne' on her, tell her not to think about anything else EXCEPT shutting Talisa down."
It almost worked too.
Everytime I would see Talisa during her high school career though, I would tell her she seemed bored with Alaska High School basketball.
And she agreed.
As her high school career progressed, she was hardly challenged during games. Glad to see she's on to bigger and better things.
She earned my respect early on. A very nice, respectful person, who loves the game of basketball, and worked hard to better herself constantly.
It is no surprise to me that she's playing Division One Women's basketball, and doing very well.
I saw that coming way back during her Freshman year.
I had the pleasure of watching Talisa play in Anchorage a few years ago and she is a very good player. She plays with a lot of heart. That said I just wanted to set Oldskool straight, since he always seems to know everything about basketball, which usually comes about by cutting others down than saying he is "keeping it real". Looking at this, I would say that Shanna Brown was not the only one who could shut down Rhea. Get your facts straight.
January 5th, 2004
MALEMUTES 39, CRIMSON BEARS 25
Friday's girls boxscore from JDHS
LATHROP (39) - Kari Reabold 6 3-4 16, Erika Stevens 0 5-6 5, Kelly Donavan 0 2-2 2, Jocelyn Shumate 2 0-0 4, Alana Clooten 2 3-4 7, Sheena Brown 1 0-0 3, Sade Powell 1 0-2 2. Totals: 12 13-18 39.
JUNEAU-DOUGLAS (25) - Alida Bus 0 0-0 0, Nicole Lupro 1 0-0 2, Kendri Cesar 1 0-0 3, Jordan Johnston 0 0-0 0, Heather Dillon 1 0-0 2, Mary Rehfeld 2 0-0 5, Talisa Rhea 1 0-0 3, Jordan Harvey 0 0-0 0, Tasha McKoy 4 2-6 10. Totals: 10 2-6 25.
LATHROP 12 8 5 14 - 39
JUNEAU-DOUGLAS 1 5 8 11 - 25
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