Shew earns MVP, East All-Stars fall

VISALIA — Many NBA fanatics fantasize about what it would be like if Kobe and LeBron played on the same team.

Saturday night, local fans got a taste of that fantasy... at least at the high school girls’ basketball level.

Tulare Union’s Ebone Brown and Porterville’s Alex Shew combined to score 42 of the team’s 74 points for the East team at the Tulare-Kings Counties All-Star Game at Redwood High, but it wasn’t good enough to beat the West, who won 78-74.

Despite coming out on the wrong side, Shew earned the game’s MVP award for scoring the evening’s high of 22, including a stretch in the middle of the second half when she scored 10 points during her team’s 15-5 run that put them up 57-51.

“Alex went off,” fellow Orange Belt standout and teammate Cassie Manning said. “She did good today.”

Brown did most of her damage in the first half, scoring 13 of her 20 points and keeping the East neck and neck with a 36-35 deficit at the half.

East coach Brian Hill, who led Porterville to its fourth state playoffs appearance, pretty much gave free reign to his All-Stars, who practiced just five times together before Saturday.

“He let us do whatever,” said Manning, who is familiar with Brown because the Redskins star once lived in Lindsay. “We had a couple plays set up and we tried, but it was hard because we all played different offenses (during the season).”

Manning scored just two points and Lindsay teammate Stevi Ibarra scored five while sharing time with Porterville counterparts Stevie Thomas (six points) and Shew.

While Manning said she enjoyed the experience, she would’ve liked more playing time alongside her Cardinal teammate, Ibarra, with whom she developed inside-outside chemistry.

“At first I was kinda nervous, but I got used to (the pace),” Manning said. “It was weird because me and (Ibarra) are used to playing together but she’d come in for me and every time I went in, she’d come out.”

Exeter’s Ashley Wilson represented the Monarchs as the fifth Orange Belt player among the nine East All-Stars in uniform. The forward was often forced to play the post out of her natural position at forward due to the team’s lack of stature.

“We had no height at all,” said Wilson, who scored six points in the paint. “I think (West All-Star and Redwood center) Becca (Thomas) is like, 6-foot-2 and we had no one to guard her. (We had to use) our speed and take smart shots.”

Thomas scored 12 points while Hanford’s Korin Macias tied El Diamante’s Marissa Nelson to lead the West with 15 each.

“We’re not used to playing a lot of talent like that,” said Manning, who committed to play for nearby College of the Sequoias. “It’s kind of what I expect for next year (at COS).”

Both squads started off a little rusty with unusual streaks. Nelson fired one of her four 3-pointers to help build a 9-0 lead for the West.

But the Porterville tandem of Shew and Thomas sparked a 10-0 run in response until their opponents rattled off a subsequent 5-0 run.

“We’ve all been out of (basketball) for like, three months, so it was hard to get back in the rhythm,” explained Wilson, who recently wrapped up the season as third baseman for Exeter softball. “Alex really stepped it up, though.”

Shew scored on a variety of jumpshots, baseline drives and fastbreak layups, including one during the middle of the first half when she was fed by Thomas with a perfect bounce pass through traffic.

Brown powered her way to the hoop for nearly all of her points, but the senior showed her versatility at halftime, when she won the 3-point shootout.

In the end, though, the West’s balance proved too much.

“It was fun playing with so many good athletes,” Manning said. “Even if you’re not doing you’re best, you know the other girls will and they got our backs.”