Karlie SamuelsonCHANDLER, Ariz. -- There were several performances and standouts of note on the final day of the 2012 Nike Tournament of Champions, but the fashion in which Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) won the events top bracket bumped all of the days earlier action out and warranted two stars of the day.
'13 ELITE 100 guard Karlie Samuelson.
*Photo by Chris Hansen.
It was the Karlie and Katie Lou Samuelson show at Hamilton High School, early and often. The two sisters, Karlie, a Stanford-bound senior combo guard, and Katie Lou, one of the top sophomores in the country, started hot and found little resistance to their long-range assault on the net until the game was well over.
Katie Lou, who stands 6 feet 2 inches, impressed on the opening day of the tournament, earning our Star of the Day honor, but planned quite an encore. She finished with 30 points, scoring 18 in the third quarter alone. While all the threes were certainly impressive, she also used her height and got points in the paint, played with some contact and showed tremendous growth in her game in that area. And where she eased off in the fourth quarter, scoring just two points, older sister Karlie put on a free-throw clinic to ice the game. Karlie finished with 37 points, scoring 17 in the fourth quarter and converting 11 of 13 from the charity stripe in the 96-74 rout of highly ranked Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.)
By the numbers the Samuelson sisters combined for 67 points and hit 13 3-pointers in the game. The mystery was why Riverdale Baptist struggled to close out past the 3-point arc. When it comes to elite girls basketball, the name Samuelson has meant long-range marksmanship for years as the eldest sister, Bonnie, who is a freshman at top-ranked Stanford, was scorching the nets years before these two hit the circuit. But time and again the two found their spots in the deep corner, top of the key and the deep wing without a defender in reach.
By knocking off St. Marys (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Riverdale Baptist, it should be pretty easy to assume that coach Kevin Kiernans squad will ascend the rankings and take the No. 1 spot in the various media polls. But if future Monarchs opponents didnt know the scouting report before the TOC, this performance should be fair warning to pick the Samuelsons up in the backcourt or the night could quickly be over as it was in the desert. Follow @ChrisHansenPSB
Hansen is managing editor of ProspectsNation.com and a McDonalds All-American selection committee member. He was the national director of scouting for ESPN HoopGurlz from 2005 until 2012. He can be reached at chris@prospectsnation.com.
