Opening Statement

Girls Tip Off Palisades Beach Invitational By Beating Notre Dame Academy, 38-33

Dominique Scott used the element of surprise to rack up huge point totals last season for the Palisades High girls’ varsity basketball team. This winter, the Dolphins’ senior will be drawing quite a crowd in the paint and she got her first taste of what it is like on Monday in Palisades’ season opener against Notre Dame Academy. Double- and triple-teamed for most of the game, Scott was forced to dish off to her teammates instead of powering to the basket. Fortunately, her fellow Dolphins picked up the slack and used a late surge to pull out a 38-33 victory in the first game of the fifth annual Palisades Beach Invitational. “I got a couple of early fouls and that took me out of the game, so when I first came back in I was a little timid,” said Scott, who averaged 14.2 points and 13.5 rebounds and made first-team All-City last season. “We started off a little sluggish but it feels good to win.” Scott played nearly half of the fourth quarter with four fouls but still finished with 10 points, including seven out of eight from the free throw line, to go along with two blocks, five rebounds and eight steals. Being an All-American candidate makes stopping her a priority for opposing teams, but the 6′ 2″ senior center seems not to mind the attention. “I just have to take my time, play my game and not worry about numbers,” Scott said. “If we’re running our offense the points will come.” With the victory, Palisades moved into the winner’s bracket, where it played Bell on Tuesday and won, 38-19. The Dolphins played Marymount on Wednesday (result undetermined at press time). Semifinals are today and the championship game tips off at 6 p.m. on Friday in the Palisades gym. A win is a win but second-year coach Torino Johnson’s team didn’t earn many style points in their opener. “I didn’t like it,” he said. “The only reason we got a win is because we participated in fall leagues. I wouldn’t say we had a skill discrepancy but we definitely had a height discrepancy and we didn’t take advantage of it as much as we should have.” Johnson praised sophomore guard Kseniya Shevchuk for jump-starting the Dolphins’ offense in the third quarter. Shevchuk “Kseniya played great,” Johnson said. “She really gave us a spark with her effort.” The game was tied 32-32 when guard Utopia Kates pulled down an offensive rebound, scored a layup and was fouled. She sank the free throw to give Palisades a three-point lead with 3:08 left and the Regals scored only one point the rest of the way. “We need to pick up our energy,” said Kates, who had a game-high 14 points, seven rebounds and five steals. “They weren’t a good ball-handling team and we should’ve run on them more. We didn’t start playing well until the fourth quarter when we realized we were about to lose.” Katie Bell had five points and four asstists while Hannah Smith and Kanoko Ishahara each added four points. Kates not only led the Dolphins in scoring, she was also called upon to defend Notre Dame Academy’s top scorer in the second half. “She was dropping threes all over the place and I had to put a stop to that,” Kates said. “I saw that they were depending on her to score so I contested every shot.” The Dolphins finished third in the Western League last year and advanced to the semifinals of the Invitational playoffs. However, Kates is looking far beyond just the league title. “Our goal is to win City,” she said. “I want us to be an elite program again. I want teams to fear us.” First things first, however, and the Dolphins’ immediate goal is to win their own tournament for the first time. “We haven’t won it yet so we have to change that,” Kates said. “We can’t be embarrassed in our own house.”