By Roark 'points' team to national title

By Pete Borello

For Los Altos resident Daniela Roark, playing point guard on the East Bay Xplosion must be like approaching the buffet table at a Las Vegas hotel. There are so many options to choose from.

Dump the ball inside to 6-foot-4 Courtney Paris or fellow All-American Ashley Paris, her 6-2 twin. Find All-State guard Alexis Gray-Lawson on the perimeter for a jumper. Zip a bounce pass to All-Bay Area forward Shantrell Sneed in the low post. Heck, even keep the ball and fire up a three-pointer.

With so much talent, it’s no wonder the club basketball team won the girls 14-and-under division at the Amateur Athletic Union National Championships, held July 18-27 in Rochester, Minn.

“The starters were the most talented I’ve ever played with and worked the best together as a team,” said Roark, who last winter played on a Pinewood School team that captured the Central Coast Section Division II title. “We didn’t play individually - we worked as a team.”

The Pleasanton-based Xplosion claimed the national crown in convincing fashion. The team went 9-0 in the tourney, outscoring its opponents by an average of 26 points and winning all its games by double-digit margins.

“It’s a great team with a very good starting lineup,” Xplosion coach Mark Anger said. “It’s one of the best teams ever to be assembled in Northern California - at any level.”

Courtney and Ashley Paris (of Piedmont High), Gray-Lawson (Oakland Tech) and Sneed (St. Mary’s-Berkeley) all averaged double-digit points in the tournament. Roark scored nearly 10 points per game and averaged about five assists.

For the season, the Xplosion compiled a 44-1 record. The team’s lone loss came in an under-17 tournament in Las Vegas at the hands of the Long Island Waves, who were ranked No. 1 in the nation in their age division.

Prior to that, the Xplosion’s last setback came a year ago in the under-13 semifinals of the national tournament. The Xplosion avenged that loss to the Air Oklahoma Stars in the Final Four of this year’s double-elimination tourney.

Actually, the Xplosion doubled its pleasure by beating the Stars in consecutive games because both teams entered the Final Four undefeated. The Xplosion followed a 60-44 victory with a 79-64 win that clinched the crown.

The Xplosion held a 12-point lead at halftime of the championship game, then deflated Air Oklahoma with a barrage of three-pointers in the initial five minutes of the second half. Roark accounted for two of the Xplosion’s five treys, helping her team take an overwhelming 25-point advantage.

Roark averaged a pair of three-pointers per game, with her best effort coming midway through the tournament against a team from Chicago. Roark went 6-for-9 on threes and “did a great job,” according to Anger.

The coach also praised Roark’s all-around play in the tournament.

“Daniela did a great job getting people the ball and hitting threes,” Anger said. “She played great defense, something she certainly did not always do before. She did a phenomenal job defending the other team’s best guard.”

Roark said defense was one of the keys to the Xplosion’s title run - especially in beating Oklahoma.

“Defensively, we shut them down; we held them to 18 points in the first half,” the 14-year-old said. “In the tough games, we stepped up our defense.”

Roark hopes the Xplosion will re-form next spring in an effort to defend its national title. However, she expects the team to move up the 16-and-under division

“There’s more competition,” Roark said.