From Monday, Feb. 12, 2008

Twenty-four points ahead in the third quarter of her team’s first postseason game, Nimitz center Brittney Griner looked nothing less than outraged.

So as she’d done all Monday night and most of this season, the 6-foot-8 junior used her height to create an opportunity. Except this time, she dunked.

Yes, she dunked, giving a game that turned out to lack much drawing power an unexpected and thunderous exclamation point.

“There was some frustration, just the intensity of the game. I let some of it (the frustration) go,” said Griner, whose Cougars never were threatened in a 60-26 whitewashing of Westside in a 5A bi-district game at Delmar Fieldhouse. “I had quite a few in the beginning of the season but this one was the best of them all. I went straight-on and it just kind of fell down. I guess everyone will be talking about this one.”

Added coach Debbie Jackson: “I encourage people to keep watching Brittney Griner because she keeps getting better and better.”

And how.

Video of Griner's dunks was featured on the front page of Yahoo! the next afternoon, several hours after her efforts put her at No. 3 in SportsCenter's top 10 the night of the game.

Griner, who had a double-double in every Nimitz game last season, finished with 29 points, 16 rebounds, 13 blocks and nine assists.

She added another dunk, this a somewhat half-hearted, right-handed putdown, late in the third for a 42-18 lead. That makes at least eight this year for the junior Baylor commit, Jackson said.

Westside (19-13) got an inkling of its fate by missing 12 of its first 13 shots even without attacking Griner directly, instead opting mostly for long-range attempts.

Meghan Allen’s coast-to-coast lay-in five minutes in was the Wolves’ only field goal of the first quarter, and they made just one more until a LaMonica Howard 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the first half made it 31-11.

“We want them to be shellshocked when they get into the lane so they have to take some outside shots,” Griner said.

Nimitz guard Jessica Diamond added 12 points and seven steals.

“I’m really proud of all our players because we take a lot of pride in our defense,” said Jackson, whose team allowed an average of 32 points a game to lead the area. “We knew they were a more guard-oriented team rather than pounding the ball inside, so we wanted to be able to contest all those shots. Anytime the ball went inside, Brittney was there. She’s intimidating, and if you don’t practice against that height every day it’s really hard to prepare for.”