The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Chalk up another accolade for one of Dayton's most decorated denizen of the hardwoods.

All-league-every-sport star McKayla Bickelhaupt capped her senior basketball season by being selected to play in the Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Association (WSGBCA) all-state game in SeaTac on March 23. The game, held at Seattle Christian High School, pitted the best of the 1B girls against the best distaff B-ballers from the 2B ranks.

Bickelhaupt made the most of the opportunity, lead­ing her 2B squad to an 81-56 victory, scoring 17 points, and earning the game's Most Valuable Player award. "We started off hot. We were fast-breaking, I hit a couple 3s, and we were just doing real good," Bickelhaupt said. "We were supposed to have 10 players, but two couldn't show up. Then one of the girls (Sami Jo Robinson, of Pe Ell) hurt her ankle really bad, so we played the second half with seven."

The 2Bers led 38-17 at half and scored 43 more points in the second ses­sion. Bickelhaupt hit 7-of-19 shots, including 3-of-9 from behind the arc. Four other players on Bickelhaupt's squad scored in double fig­ures.

"It was a great experience to play with girls who are go­ing to go on and play college basketball," Bickelhaupt noted.

Bickelhaupt plans on con­tinuing her basketball career at Spokane Falls Commu­nity College, where she will try out. She has been in close contact with SFCC assistant coach Rick Walters. Walters attended the all-state game.

Bickelhaupt said she is very appreciative of her community's support. She has heard congratulations from many since returning from the all-state game. She says a lot of the credit for her success goes to her coach, Dayton's own Clay­ton Strong.

"I think my coach helped me out a lot," Bickelhaupt said. "I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now without his good coaching."

Strong returns his star player's appreciation.

"I could go on for a long time about her. She's tough as nails," said Strong. "I couldn't be more proud of a young woman who in two years grew not only as a basketball player, but as a person. She became quite a teammate to play with, and to coach. The whole coach­ing staff is going to miss having her around.

"I was really happy that she was selected to play in that all-state game," Strong continued. "It was an honor well-deserving of what she's put into the program. The honor of being player of the game was well-deserved too."

Besides Robinson, Bick­elhaupt's team consisted of Chantel Heath of state champion Reardan, Au­tumn Moorcroft of Mossy­rock, Demi Sahlinger of Napavine, and Hannah Di­etzen and Maria Guske of Northwest Christian.

The 1Bs included two players from state champ Colton-Kaitlyn Druffel and Paige Vincent-and a player and the coach from runner-up Sunnyside Chris­tian- Kara Den Hoed and coach Al Smeenk.

Vincent led all scorers in the game with 18 points. Vincent was the only 1B player to score in double figures.