Valley a wellspring of female talent

By Ron Kantowski

Monday, March 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.

As he watched No. 15 on the Stanford Cardinal women’s basketball team climbing the ladder to snip a little piece of souvenir twine for her scrapbook a week ago Sunday at Galen Center on the USC campus, Al La Rocque had to keep from pinching himself.

Considering he spent 34 years as a Las Vegas high school coach and was a basketball fan long before he was a basketball coach, you could almost equip every rim hanging from every barn in the state of Indiana and the commonwealth of Kentucky with the nets La Rocque has seen cut down.

But this was different. This was No. 15 on the Stanford Cardinal. This was his daughter, Lindy, a backup guard for the second-best women’s basketball team in the land, climbing the steps of that ladder with scissors in her hand and the thrill of victory on her face.

“How strong was that?” La Rocque asked rhetorically.

Real strong. Especially when you consider his daughter isn’t the only one who has been cutting down nets at the Division I level since leaving Las Vegas.

Four former local phenoms are playing significant minutes for some of the nation’s top women’s programs — a development that becomes even more noteworthy when considering three are true freshman and the other one just a sophomore.

Do these shes have game? You bet:

• Lindy La Rocque, who played for her father at Durango High School, is one of the key reserves for soon-to-be Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer at Stanford. She averages 11 minutes a game for the 30-4 Cardinal, the No. 2 seed in the Berkeley region.

• Despite undergoing minor knee surgery in November, former Mojave High standout Chelsea Hopkins has appeared in 19 games as a freshman at Duke, averaging eight minutes. The sixth-ranked Blue Devils are the top seed in the Berkeley region.

• Ashley Gayle, a 6-4 freshman who towered over her competition while at Bishop Gorman High, started seven games for No. 25 Texas this year and played in 31, averaging 13 minutes. The Lady Longhorns were the No. 6 seed in the Berkeley region.

• Italee Lucas is averaging 13.6 points as a sophomore for 11th-ranked North Carolina, the No. 3 seed in the Oklahoma City region. Lucas was one of the most sought-after high school players in the country after leading Centennial High to three state championships in four seasons.

Even more impressive than the impact the locals are making as first- and second-year players is that they are doing it at schools synonymous with women’s basketball. Of their four schools, only Duke has never won the NCAA championship, and the Blue Devils have been the bridesmaid twice since 1999.

Three more former Southern Nevada stalwarts also are on NCAA tourney rosters — Stephanie Solomon (Las Vegas High), Jabrenta Hubbard (Green Valley) and Genesis Lightbourne (Faith Lutheran) are reserves with Virginia Commonwealth, Charlotte and Iowa State, respectively.

“I think it really kind of runs in cycles — just like the boys,” Al La Rocque said of Southern Nevada’s emergence as a girls basketball hotbed.

But the cycle on the girls side is just now getting going.

There was a 22-year period, from 1980 to 2002, during which Southern Nevada teams failed to win a single large-school state championship. But then Centennial won in 2002, the first of its four consecutive state championships. Bishop Gorman won the three after that before Centennial cut down the nets at the Orleans last month.

Not coincidentally, Southern Nevada began sending players to the next level right about the time Centennial and Bishop Gorman starting winning state championships.

Karen Weitz, who built a dynasty at Centennial, left to coach in college and has since returned to start another dynasty with the Bulldog girls, says the success of Lucas and La Rocque and the others gives local players a goal in addition to bringing Las Vegas basketball closer together.

“I have kids say they can’t wait to get home to watch Italee or that Lindy La Rocque is playing on TV and even though they might have been competitors, then you realize Las Vegas isn’t such a large city after all,” Weitz said.

“It’s the same with the guys who go on. It gives our kids something to shoot for and strive for and hope to be a part of someday.”