2000/2001 Game Results Last Updated: March 13, 2001

--------- PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL: AP ALL-STATE -----------

North senior on par with state's finest

Parr makes first team; Chippewa Falls' Ott, Flambeau's Verdegan on third team

By Leader-Telegram staff and The Associated Press

Larissa Parr is the first Big Rivers Conference girls basketball player to be voted to the Wisconsin Associated Press All-State first team since Hudson senior Corrin Von Wald in 1997-98.

Standing outside his team's locker room 2½ weeks ago, Eau Claire Memorial coach Steve Smith paid Larissa Parr perhaps her highest compliment as a high school basketball player.

"I'm absolutely thrilled Larissa Parr is finally graduating," Smith said of the 6-foot Eau Claire North senior forward who regularly terrorized the Old Abes. "I'll bet I could get the other Big Rivers (Conference) coaches to chip in and give her one heckuva graduation gift."

Parr's dominating all-around play, leadership traits and unselfish nature didn't go unnoticed by a panel of statewide sportswriters, who voted Parr to the five-member first team of the 2000-01 Wisconsin Associated Press All-State team.

Also named to the first team was Stevens Point senior center Janel McCarville, a teammate of Parr's on a Wisconsin AAU all-star team that placed third in the National Junior Olympics in Orlando, Fla., this past summer.

The 6-foot-1 McCarville and Janesville Parker junior center Mistie Bass shared this season's AP Player of the Year honor. The 6-foot-2 Bass, who last season also was named AP Player of the Year, helped Janesville Parker repeat as the WIAA Division 1 state champion.

Janesville Parker defeated Stevens Point 51-44 Saturday night in the state-title game at the Kohl Center in Madison. McCarville had 25 points and 17 rebounds, and Bass had 13 points and nine rebounds. Both teams finished with 26-1 records.

The other AP first-team picks were Milwaukee Pius senior forward Christine Gutierrez and Kettle Moraine senior forward Adrienne Norris. Norris, like Parr, signed an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship with Boston University.

Six other area players gained recognition from The AP, which selected four five-player teams and gave 45 players honorable mention.

Chippewa Falls senior Angie Ott and Flambeau senior Alyssa Verdegan were selected to the third team. Eau Claire Memorial senior Joanna Leafblad, Menomonie senior Jackie Dummer, Gilmanton junior Rachel Becker and Black River Falls senior Brianna Kappen received honorable mention.

The All-State designation added to a lengthy list of honors for Parr, who was named All-Big Rivers Conference for three straight seasons. She shared the 2000-01 BRC Player of the Year honor with Ott.

With Parr averaging team highs of 13.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season, North (19-3) won its first Big Rivers title since the 1993-94 season with a 13-1 league record. She averaged 21.0 points in three games against Memorial.

Ott, a 6-foot guard who averaged 16.0 points per game and hit 53 percent of her 3-point shots, led the Big Rivers in scoring for the second straight season. She scored 1,029 career points for Chippewa Falls, which had a 14-8 record in each of the past two seasons, and signed an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship with Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Verdegan, a 5-foot-9 point guard headed to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., on an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship, helped lead Flambeau to the WIAA state tournament in each of her four varsity seasons. She was a starter in the past three, and Flambeau had a 77-2 record in that span -- with both losses coming in the state tournament.

Leafblad averaged a team-best 15.1 points per game this season for Memorial (22-4), which placed third in the Big Rivers standings but advanced to the WIAA state tournament for the first time since the 1992-93 season. The Old Abes lost to Stevens Point 42-38 in a Division 1 semifinal Friday.

Becker too led her team to the WIAA state tournament and helped Gilmanton (23-4) win its first Division 4 state title in team history. Becker, a 5-foot-9 guard, averaged 30.5 points per game in the sectional playoffs and had 26 points and nine rebounds in each of the Panthers' two state-tournament games.

Dummer, a three-year starter and four-year letterwinner, averaged a team-best 14.6 points per game for young Menomonie (8-13), which took Eau Claire Memorial into overtime in a sectional final. The 5-foot-9 point guard, who is Menomonie's career leader in assists and steals, was on the same AAU all-star team this past summer as Parr, Ott and McCarville.

McCarville is headed to the University of Minnesota, which beat out Wisconsin, Old Dominion, UW-Green Bay, Drake and Kent for her services.

Bass is being courted by the Badgers and four elite college programs: Tennessee, Connecticut, Duke and Notre Dame.

McCarville had 65 points, 44 rebounds, eight assists, 11 blocks and seven steals in three state-tournament games last week.

Bass acknowledged she had a deeper supporting cast this season, which allowed her to post smaller numbers while still being a force inside and out. It was her dominant play in the fourth quarter Saturday that secured the title.

"The state tournament was a key for Janel getting statewide recognition," her coach, Kraig Terpstra, said. "She was a relative unknown compared to Mistie, whose had statewide recognition from her freshman year on.

"Janel made up for a lot of lost time this state tournament. And to be honored along with a great player like Mistie Bass makes the award even more special for her."

Terpstra was runner-up for Coach of the Year honors, which went to Green Bay Notre Dame's Mark Olejniczak, who led the Tritons (27-0) to the Division 2 title. Notre Dame was the state's lone unbeaten team this season.