Stine named Athlete of the Week

The Sacred Heart Prep senior is nearly a foot shorter than teammate Megan Norris, a 6-3 center. So, it seems like a sound strategy for opponents to concentrate on blocking out Norris on the boards.

More times than not, with Stine’s ball-hawking sensibilities, throwing bodies at the taller Norris proves to be a mistake. This was the case last Friday in the Gators’ 59-55 overtime victory over rival Menlo School as Stine recorded a rare double-double with 14 points and an astonishing 16 rebounds, including 10 offensive boards.

“It just speaks to her never-say-die mentality,” SHP head coach Kai Bell said. “She just never gives up on plays. She’s tenacious. What she does on the floor in pursuing the ball is something that is a part of her DNA.”

Menlo is full aware of Stine’s DNA. The senior’s older sister, De’Jeane, graduated from Menlo in 2017 after playing four years of varsity basketball for head coach John Paye’s Lady Knights. De’Jeane was a ball hawk too, but of another kind, as the 5-2 guard averaged 2.97 steals per game throughout her Menlo career.

The younger Stine, however, is right in the mix for SHP’s team lead in rebounding. Entering play last Friday, Stine ranked fourth on the team with 5.8 rebounds per game, just behind team leaders Kennedy Anderson and Charlotte Levison with 6.4 rpg apiece, followed by Norris with 6 rpg.

After her massive performance against Menlo, Stine now averages a team-best 6.7 rpg.

“I’m a post in a small guard’s body,” Stine said.

To call SHP’s thrilling victory over its neighboring rival an upset would be a massive understatement. Menlo is ranked No. 22 in in the state, and No. 3 in the Central Coast Section, according to MaxPreps.com. SHP ranks No. 119 and No. 10, respectively.

Now, the Gators are sitting pretty in first place in the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division as the only unbeaten team in league play. Menlo and Pinewood — the Knights celebrated an upset of their own, ending Pinewood’s 65-game winning streak in WBAL play Saturday, Jan. 11 — are tied for second place, each with one loss in league.

“The feeling was definitely we had a good chance to go in and give them a good game, if not come out with a win,” Bell said. “We obviously did our homework on them. And coming off the big win they had against Pinewood, we knew what we were getting into. But we’re as healthy as we’ve been all season … and we liked the matchups.”

Stine had her hands full guarding Menlo junior Coco Layton, who recorded a double-double of her own. Layton went for 15 points and 10 rebounds, but 3 of those points came from beyond the arc late in the fourth quarter to give Menlo a 48-43 lead, this right after SHP switched to a zone defense for the first time in the game.

But SHP closed regulation on a 7-2 run, including an assist from Stine to Caroline Barclay for a layup at the buzzer to tie it. Then, after Norris scored to give the Gators a 52-50 lead in overtime, Stine took over by scoring SHP’s last three field goals of the night to cap the victory — much in part to the offensive rebounds.

“They’ve been huge,” Stine said. “Especially when shots aren’t falling, having our second-chance opportunities, I feel just crashing opens our chances to be able to score. … Friday’s game wasn’t a great shooting game for us (the Gators shot 27.1% from the floor) but … those second-chance opportunities helped us stay in the game the whole time.”

And one of SHP’s most vocal supporters, according to Stine, was her older sister De’Jeane. The Menlo graduate was in town while on winter break from college and was in attendance, sitting with mother Jennifer, rooting for her younger sister throughout.

“She was,” Stine said. “I watched the film. She was up in the crowd cheering probably more than my mom was.”

The Stine family has a unique bond, having spent years commuting to the Peninsula together from their East Bay home in Livermore. The two sisters saw one year of overlap in high school when Denise Stine was a freshman in 2017 and De’Jeane was a senior. Unlike her older sister, however, Stine opted to attend SHP, pitting the two as rivals on the court.

Menlo and SHP have some other critical ties. Bell is in his second coaching stint at SHP. A former assistant coach of the varsity boys for nine years with the Gators, he spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach for the Menlo boys’ team. And Bell took over the SHP girls this year with the departure of former head coach Melanie Murphy, who is now an assistant coach with the Menlo girls’ team.

Stine, however, is a Gator through and through.

“We go because of her,” Bell said. “She’s the heart and soul of this thing.”