Championship Quest Should Begin, End With Columbus

A year ago, the American Basketball League conducted a fan survey, trying to learn more about its ticket buyers.

It turned out 85% had some kind of technical or college degree.

So, since everyone’s so well-educated, we can start with an easy premise as the league begins its playoffs this weekend:

The Columbus Quest, exclusive of international all-star teams, is the best women’s basketball team assembled.

Any ABL playoff scenario that doesn’t have the Quest on top at the finish is a stunner. This is a league with exceptional balance from No. 2 through No. 9, but the Quest is in a different league.

Here’s how good the Quest is: Last year, led by league most valuable player Nikki McCray, Columbus went 31-9 and won the league championship.

Shortly before this season began, McCray jumped to the WNBA . . . and Columbus got better.

The Quest finished 36-8, were 21-1 at home, fashioned win streaks of eight and 13 games and won 18 of its last 19 regular-season games.

How can a team improve by losing its best player? And how can a team be so good without a true center?

“We’ve got great team chemistry, and we had it when Nikki was here, so losing her just meant closing up one gap,” said Katie Smith, the offensive leader who averages 17.4 points per game.

The coach, Brian Agler, agrees his team is better this season.

“We’re more unselfish than we were with her,” he said.

“We’re a better team, in every sense of the word.”

Smith, the 5-11 ex-Ohio State All-American, has a talented support crew, starting with a 36-year-old Valerie Still, Andrea Lloyd, and Shannon Johnson, perhaps the most underrated point guard in the league.

The way Portland Power Coach Lin Dunn sees it, the Quest’s secret is that it almost plays with an extra player.

“I’ve always felt that when you play great team defense, it’s like having six players out there,” she said.

“They all help out so well, they recover well and any of those starters is capable of shutting down anyone.”

If anyone is to knock off Columbus, it’ll have to be a team that brings much more to the table than it did in the regular season. The Quest was 5-2 against New England, 3-1 against San Jose and Portland and 4-0 against Long Beach and Colorado.

Can anyone do it?

“Probably not,” Dunn said.

A look at the two first-round, best-of-three series:

* Long Beach (26-18) vs. Colorado (21-23): The StingRays have a physical edge on Colorado and a deeper bench than the Xplosion, in the series beginning Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. The StingRays have a 4-3 season edge over the Xplosion, but both clubs have been inconsistent all season.

* San Jose (21-23) vs. New England (24-20): If San Jose can find someone who can shut down New England’s Carolyn Jones (21.8 points per game), the Lasers could sweep this one. In four meetings this year, the Lasers held Jones under her average three times. The series begins tonight at Hartford.

In the best-of-three semifinals, Columbus will play the New England-San Jose winner. Portland, the Western Conference champion at 27-17, will play the Long Beach-Colorado winner.

ABL Notes

On the regular season’s last day Tuesday, Portland’s Natalie Williams retained her league rebound title and added the scoring championship too. By a margin of one point over 44 games--964 points to 963--Williams edged New England’s Carolyn Jones, 21.909 points per game to 21.866. She averaged 11.6 rebounds, to runner-up Yolanda Griffith’s 11.2. Griffith was fourth in scoring, 18.8, and first in steals, 3.1. Long Beach guard Andrea Nagy (6.2) was third in assists, behind Teresa Edwards (6.7) and Dawn Staley (6.5).