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Roger
Underwood
Yakima Herald-Republic

E-mail Roger Underwood about this column

Just when you thought you'd seen it all.

When you'd seen East Valley's Red Devils successfully walk a tightrope without a net.

When you'd seen them sawed in half and then walk away as one.

When you'd seen them shot out of a cannon only to land coolly, calmly and collectedly (as always) on their feet.

Just when you thought you'd seen the defending Class 2A state girls basketball champions be beaten, you hadn't.

Not really. Not this team, not this season.

We offer Friday night as further evidence that champions stay champions until someone proves otherwise, even when it seems that they're about to.

With East Valley, it's never over 'til it's over.

How else to explain two overtime victories and a three-point nail-biter, all of which have combined to put this team front and center in the Yakima Valley SunDome once again Saturday night, in a second successive state championship game?

"Heart," said coach Jack Cleveland, with a wink and a smile.

Oh, so that's it.

And all along we thought it was defense, the in-your-face pressure beneath which opponents invariably wilt.

Or clutch offense, with one night an Angie Ibach and the next an Angie Mullen sticking the jumper to turn a game around.

In Friday night's 50-43 overtime conquest of Blaine, a victory that ended the Borderites' unbeaten run at 24 games, East Valley did in fact have a shooting star. It was Jennifer Newland.

"She got us rolling," Cleveland shouted above a celebratory din that is now an EV state routine. That's 10 tournament wins in a row if you're counting.

It's true that Newland, a 5-foot-6 junior, connected on two long 3-pointers to key the Red Devils' 13-4 getaway. She added another to start a 7-0 run at the outset of the third quarter.

And, last but not least, she might well have saved EV's day -- not to mention its season -- with a shot clock-beating drive that tied the score 38-38 with 51 seconds left in regulation.

Newland finished with 12 points, more than any other Red Devil. But those two were no doubt the biggest, highlighting yet another huge game by yet another EV player.

"We've showed these kids our tape of the state tournament last year," Cleveland said. "We've done it to remind them how much passion and energy it takes. A state tournament is four long, grueling days. It's a marathon."

Had East Valley broken out of that footage at the start of the season it would have had a Devil of a time keeping pace, of living up to all that Elyse Mengarelli, Rachel Sevigny and others had accomplished. It was, as Cleveland had reminded, a new season and a new team.

So they took it slow, step by step.

"We didn't even make state one of our goals at the start of the season," Newland said. "Our first goal was just to get to district. Then after we started beating all the teams in our league, we started to think about it and talk about it.

"Now we watch the film at all our team dinners -- everything."

Senior Angie Ibach, whose offensive rebound and baseline drive sent the game into overtime with nine seconds left, said the film stimulates the collective heart Cleveland spoke of. Especially for those like Ibach, who played on last season's team.

"It reminds us how good it felt," she said before getting a hug from Sevigny. "It reminds us. And it gives us that edge."

East Valley's had one, all right.

And should the Red Devils sustain it Saturday night, in the state title game against Pullman, that instructional and inspirational film clip Cleveland talked about will have grown to documentary proportions.

Well, that might be an exaggeration. But then again these are the East Valley Red Devils.

And just when you thought you'd seen it all.

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