PASSING THE TORCH

The fastbreak, as performed by Kelli Kobayashi, is decidedly methodical.

It takes only a few seconds as Kobayashi charges downcourt, dribbling hard. She must freeze the defender, then dish to a teammate streaking unguarded to the basket.

The Alemany High point guard keeps a quick checklist in her head.

“See where the defender is,” Kobayashi said. “Then see if there is a passing lane.”

Oh, and one more thing.

“I have to make sure my teammate is looking at me.”

More than a few of her passes this season have clanked off unsuspecting hands and skipped harmlessly away.

Kobayashi has learned to keep things simple on a squad filled with talented but inexperienced underclassmen.

She has learned to play her best . . . by not playing her best.

Take an extra split-second, take a little heat off the pass.

“Sometimes a no-look pass would work,” Kobayashi said. “But sometimes my teammates don’t know it’s coming.”

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The program lists Kobayashi at 5 feet 4, but that is probably stretching the truth by an inch or two. She is a wisp of a girl.

Yet she and her equally unimposing team have raced to a 27-6 record, a regional title and a berth in the state Division III championship game against San Francisco Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday at 1:15 p.m. at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

The Indians have compensated for their lack of size and seasoning with sheer frenzy.

Their scrambling defense is always on the verge of creating a turnover--or giving up an easy basket. Their offense is constantly looking to push the ball upcourt.

Sophomore guard Kate Beckler, who takes an immediate liking to any jump shot she encounters, has provided scoring punch by averaging more than 20 points. Freshman center Karina Siam has come up big, too, scoring 19 points in the regional final against Harvard-Westlake last Saturday.

But it is Kobayashi, averaging 14.6 points and 5.3 assists a game, who has kept the team together. She is the conductor for Alemany’s uptempo symphony.

“We were a little shaky in the beginning of the season,” Siam said. “If we missed a shot, she said ‘Don’t worry, you’ll make it next time.’

“She’s been a mentor. She’s been a friend.”

Recently, she has also been a savior.

In the regional semifinal against Wasco, Kobayashi scored eight of her 24 points in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, hitting a three-point shot from the corner to help turn a close battle into a 70-51 victory.

“We knew she could shoot the ball,” Wasco Coach David Lucas said.

“But down the stretch she really nailed a couple.”

In a 50-45 victory over Harvard-Westlake, she again scored eight points in the final minutes, hitting two three-pointers.

“I’ve always been the passer,” she said. “I’ve been taught to distribute the ball. I’ve never had to be the one to score all the points.

“Now my parents and my coaches have been telling me to shoot more when I’m open.”

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If Kobayashi is stingy with her jump shot, she is downright miserly with her words.

“She doesn’t talk a lot,” Siam said. “You’ve just got to read her eyes.”

Reticence might seem like a shortcoming in a team leader.

Apparently, it has not hindered Kobayashi.

“Her game is loud,” Coach Melissa Hearlihy said.

“She doesn’t make too many turnovers. She hits the key shots and makes the good pass. She may never say a word, but people know where she is.”

Now it can be revealed--her quiet nature is partially attributable to nerves.

“When I’m nervous, I need to be off by myself,” she said.

Her father, Don, explained: “I try to leave her alone so she can focus on her thoughts.”

Kobayashi was never quieter, never more apprehensive, than before Alemany’s section title game against La Puente. Though considered the best point guard in the region, she carried the albatross of having played in two previous section championship games without a victory.

“We wanted to win so bad,” Beckler said. “We wanted to win one for Kelli.”

After Alemany’s 62-39 victory over La Puente, Siam ran directly to her senior teammate.

“I just hugged her and said, ‘This is for you,’ ” Siam recalled.

“You could see it in her eyes. Then everybody started crying.”

When the team received its championship plaque, Hearlihy gave it to Kobayashi to keep at home for a while.

“It’s right on her dresser so she can lay back on her bed and see it,” her father said.

“She just lays there and looks at it.”

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With each game, each additional victory, Kobayashi is trying to do a little more with her game.

Her passes become a little crisper, a little quicker.

“[My teammates] are learning to look at me,” she said. “I tell them, ‘If you’re open, you’re going to get the ball.’ ”

And maybe, with each additional victory, Kobayashi is feeling a little more confident in her own abilities.

She has begun to speak up for herself, showing flashes of anger at the perception that she is too short to play major college basketball. So far, only San Francisco State and Cal State Los Angeles have shown interest.

She has also begun to speak up for her team.

Appearing on a local television show before the Harvard-Westlake game, she guaranteed a victory.

Then, coming off the court after that victory, she responded to an assistant coach’s congratulations with an uncharacteristically bold statement.

Suddenly, the young woman who rarely opens her mouth sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I’m not done yet,” she said.

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Alemany Basketball: STATE FINAL; Saturday, 1:15 p.m. at Arco Arena