Duperron Takes a Giant Step

Meager as they were, the statistics that Krissy Duperron posted Friday night at the Arco Arena were the most important numbers she has had in some time.

Two points, two for seven at the free-throw line, 0 for 5 from the field, one rebound for 10 minutes of work after coming off the bench.

“Those were the most important two points of my life,” she said.

Taking nothing away from Woodbridge’s 51-44 victory over Sacramento El Camino, the fact Duperron was back was almost as shocking as the Warriors’ winning their second consecutive state Division II girls’ basketball title was routine. She had waited--sometimes tearfully--for Friday night to come for nearly three long months after a career-threatening knee injury last December and was released to play only Wednesday.

So pardon the Warriors if there were high-fives, hugs and tears as she joined the crush of Woodbridge players on the floor when the final buzzer sounded.

“It was such a lift just to see her play,” guard Erin Stovall said. “We waited most of the season to see her back. Just to see her out there like that was special.”

Duperron, who was an all-county second-team selection last year, was rusty. But under the onslaught of El Camino’s 20-player deep bench, she gave the Warriors what Coach Pat Quinn called “another body to bang out there . . . and she’s a banger.”

Duperron has made a career of holding her own against opponents inside the key. Friday night she was just glad to get near the key.

They don’t give game balls after state championship games, but Duperron accepted a ceremonial net after the game, hung it around her neck and preened for television cameras, her rosy and wet checks revealing tears of joy.

Long before, she removed a black, rigid, uncomfortable knee brace. Then she tore at tape on her rehabilitated knee, revealing a four-inch purple scar.

“It felt so good, so right to be able to play again,” she said.

Duperron, a 6-0 junior forward who averaged about 14 points and 12 rebounds as a sophomore, tore the meniscus in her right knee last December. She tried to play on it, but it got worse. By the time the winter holiday rolled around she could barely bend it.

“She was dragging the leg along behind her,” Quinn said.

Surgery followed, then hours of rehabilitation. She didn’t shoot around until only a couple of days ago. In fact, the only time she touched a ball was for an occasional free-throw shooting contest, one that doctors probably would have frowned on.

So Friday night it was fitting Duperron didn’t just step up to the awards table to get her championship medal. She sprinted to receive it.

She was back and wanted everyone to know it.