La Quinta’s Jalewalia Makes Points With Improved Shot

To the surprise of just about no one, Amy Jalewalia was named the most valuable player of La Quinta’s basketball tournament last week.

Jalewalia, The Times’ Athlete of the Week, led La Quinta to the championship by scoring 44, 51 and 30 points on consecutive nights.

Jalewalia, a 6-foot-1 center, is averaging 30.5 points and 10 rebounds a game this season, but her success has more to do with her preparation than her proportion.

La Quinta Coach Kevin Kiernan said, “She didn’t have that good a shot her first couple of years. It was something we consciously worked on.”

Jalewalia’s biggest improvement has been her shooting, Kiernan said. She went from averaging 13 points a game as a sophomore to leading the state with a 31.2 average as a junior.

Her improved shot also complements her main assets--quickness and anticipation.

“I didn’t think her shooting would develop as fast as it did, but her defense gets her a lot of points too,” Kiernan said. “Her anticipation on defense is the best I’ve seen--she gets 10 to 15 points on steals alone. When you average 30 points, you get a lot of cheap baskets off the press.”

But Kiernan said she needs to improve her defense.

“I can always improve everything: my ballhandling, being more consistent in my shooting,” Jalewalia said. “But defense is the main thing. I guess on defense I’ve been known to ‘float’ a little bit.”

Kiernan said, “We like to play man-on-man defense and, sometimes, she used to seem a little (uninterested), so I’d yell at her. Actually, her team defense is better than her man (defense). In the press, she gets so many points because she so quick and she steals the ball. I like to give Amy freedom because she’s so quick.”

Jalewalia will move to guard when she plays at UCLA next season because of her size and quickness. Jalewalia prefers guard, but has to play center at La Quinta because she’s the team’s tallest player.

“In practice she makes unbelievable passes,” Kiernan said. “She’ll be a great guard. With a team around her that has better scoring, she wouldn’t have to score to be effective. She likes the attention of scoring, but she’d be happy just passing.”

TOP PERFORMERS

Guards Tammy Blackburn and Aimee McDaniel led Brea-Olinda (13-0) to the Santa Barbara basketball tournament championship. In Tuesday’s 82-59 victory over Fremont, McDaniel had 36 points with seven three-point field goals and Blackburn had 23 points. Both were named to the all-tournament team.

In four games, Blackburn led Brea-Olinda in scoring twice (16 in a 56-36 victory over Healdsburg Wednesday and 14 in a 59-48 upset of Morningside Thursday) and McDaniel led twice (36 Tuesday and 18 in a 65-61 championship victory over Los Angeles Washington Friday.

At the Cypress basketball tournament, Mission Viejo’s Jennifer Rohrig had 31 points, 25 rebounds and six blocked shots to lead the Diablos to a 57-50 victory over Cerritos Thursday and had 18 points in a 48-33 victory over Foothill Friday.

Melisa Sortino had 32 points, including seven three pointers, to lead Marina to a 91-53 victory over Los Alamitos at the Cypress tournament Tuesday. Sortino scored 30 points Wednesday in a 67-52 victory over Cerritos in the tournament.

Jenny Sullivan had 33 points to lead Ocean View to a 44-38 victory over Gahr in the championship game of the Cypress tournament Friday. Sullivan scored all of Ocean View’s 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Amy Jalewalia

La Quinta High School

* Position: Center

* Height, Weight, Class: 6-1, 140, Senior

* Last Week: Jalewalia scored 44, 51 and 30 points in three La Quinta tournament games to lead La Quinta to the tournament championship.

* Season: Jalewalia averages 30.5 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.