Girl's player of the year: Kyle Dougherty
Maybe you have figured it out. Maybe you've discovered a secret to get her rattled. Perhaps her palms will even start to sweat so the ball slips out of her hands a hair too soon or a touch to the right, and that perfect pass flies off target or the game-winning shot catches the side of the rim.
Let's just say we're skeptical, but we'd sure like to hear what you have to say. In fact, we're all ears waiting as patiently as Kyle Dougherty attacks a full-court press.
For two years, Section 4 coaches have been trying to come up with a way to stop, er, contain Dougherty, Owego's do-everything sophomore. All to no avail, which is the reason Dougherty is
the Press & Sun-Bulletin 2002-2003 Girls' Basketball Player of the Year for the second time in the two-year history of the award.
The Player of the Year and the rest of the 22nd All-Metro girls' team were selected after discussions with area coaches and statistical analysis.
It should be noted that neither idle chatter nor raw numbers can do Dougherty justice, though 21 points, six rebounds and more than five assists per game is nothing to sniff at.
Only when you've seen Dougherty perform can you really appreciate why she's already being talked about as one of the area's all-time greats. But she's worth watching.
"If you like to see someone pick somebody apart, you watch Kyle," Norwich coach Bob Branham said. "She has all the skills in the world but a basketball IQ second to none -- boys or girls."
She is 5-foot-10, but her movements, with or without the ball, have the controlled grace of a figure skater carving her way across the ice. Her shot is pure, with the same fluid motion she had as a 9-year-old when she sank 29 in a row to win a free throw contest. And she'll head-fake a defender into a headache before letting it go without an open look.
But that's not her biggest asset.
"No one sees the court like she does," Whitney Point coach Tom Kraly said. Her vision is what makes her such an adept passer, and why she registered 10 assists in a game four times this season. Her head is always up, scanning the court to find the open man, and at times she seems more quarterback than point guard, flinging the ball between two defenders up-court to set up a fastbreak layup.
Dougherty also has a keen understanding of how to play within the framework of a team, which is a big reason hers was the area's best this season. The Indians won the Southern Tier Athletic Conference and Section 4 Class B titles and were beaten only twice in 25 games.
Even with a strong supporting cast, including Dougherty's best friends, Michelle Reynolds and Briana Bertoni, Owego wouldn't have been so good had she not willed it to at least a couple of victories.
Never was that clearer than in back-to-back games against Vestal and Horseheads at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. All she did was score 24 points and assist on the game-tying basket in the Indians' overtime victory against the Golden Bears. Then, less than 24 hours later, she rallied her teammates to another come-from-behind win with 13 second-half points against the Blue Raiders.
