EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
For three years, Shamari Lewis has been scoring points but also watching the Lady Redskins come up one game short of reaching the State tournament, and instead of talking about how she reached 1,000 career points Tuesday in Hooker, Okla., she was more focused on how here team performed and what was still ahead.
“Hooker is really aggressive and plays super hard,” Lewis said after a 50-41 win. “We have to play all four quarters, talk a lot, and that’s when we play good.”
Her points — just doing what needed to do at the free throw line late in the game.
“I was just looking at the score and saw we were only up by nine,” she said. “So I had to put these in.”
Liberal’s 14-4 run in the second quarter made the difference.
“We talked about putting our foot on the pedal and playing really good defense,” Lewis said. “We talked about getting to the traps and being the best defensive team, and the defense turned into offense.”
Lewis is more focused on how to provide opportunities for others.
“When they play a zone and collapse to the middle, I drive and kick, drive and kick,” she said. “That’s what we do a lot at practice. If I know they will double team or are sagging on me, I drive, kick and try to get my teammates open whenever I can.”
But the hunger to go further is driving this year’s Lady Red.
“We have come so close so many times,” Lewis said. “We are all itching to do better. It doesn’t matter what somebody did or how the game goes, we are all pushing for each other. We want to take the next step.
And teammate Kiley Rhine’s outside game helps.
“When she is on her game, which is always, it opens up the floor for me and everybody,” Lewis said. “We get open looks, and it is just great overall basketball when she is out there doing her thing.
And the expectations for Lewis to succeed have been enormous since she is the daughter of one of Liberal’s best boy players of all time and former NBA player — Martin Lewis. But that pressure has only been an asset, she said.
“My dad supports me 1,000 percent,” she said. “He never says, ‘She is in my shadow.’ He says, ‘She is Shamari Lewis.’ We are two different people. He supports me 1,000 percent. He comes to my games and is not worried about anything. He just tells me to think about the game and process it. I couldn’t be more grateful to have him and my mom.”
And with a simple hand gesture, she can get a little advice from Dad in the stands.
“If I missed one of my layups or did something wrong, I look up there, and he puts his thumbs up,” she said. “If I get two thumbs up I just keep going, but if he gives me a hand on his head, I know not to do that again.”
Lewis will look to add to her record rebounds and point tallies Friday when the Lady Redskins host Great Bend.
