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Risper Has a Certain Something

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Times Staff Writer

As the stakes rose and the quality of opponents improved, Moreno Valley Canyon Springs looked less like California’s second-highest scoring girls’ basketball team and more like its luckiest.

Despite trailing in the fourth quarter of its three Southern California Regional playoff victories, the Cougars always had in reserve the big steal, the big pass, the big something.

And 5-foot-9 guard Jennifer Risper usually had something to do with it.

“She seems to rise to the moment,” said Ventura Coach Ann Larson, whose team lost to Canyon Springs in the Southern Section Division I-A and regional finals.

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Risper and Canyon Springs (31-3) play Oakland Tech (21-6) for the Division I state title Saturday at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

Risper, one of only two senior starters, doesn’t lead the team in scoring (15.5), rebounds (5.3) or assists (4.6). She does lead it in steals (2.9) ... and heart.

“Her intensity and desire to win affects everybody else on the team, especially when the game’s close,” Canyon Springs Coach Gail Hale said.

Risper’s intensity and desire were put to good use last week, when she scored 29, 13 and 16 points in consecutive games.

Canyon Springs outscored Carlsbad, 33-5, in the fourth quarter to pull out a 79-56 victory. Trailing by nine with little more than three minutes left, the Cougars outscored Lynwood, 12-2, in a 65-64 victory. Last Saturday, they scored 32 of the last 39 points to beat Ventura, 57-41.

During the first 22 games of its 25-game winning streak, Canyon Springs never trailed in the fourth quarter. But when the Cougars finally did, they played like the team that averaged 70.2 points. Opponents were left in their wake.

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“I know we’re a good team, and I know we can play like a great team, [and] when we hit that level in the fourth quarter, I didn’t see other teams matching that intensity,” said Risper, who averaged 9.4, 18.3 and 20.3 points in successive seasons.

“You can tell you have a championship team when they can come from behind against quality teams,” said Lynwood Coach Ellis Barfield, whose teams won three state titles from 2001 to ‘03, and who gives Canyon Springs the edge over Oakland Tech, which beat Lynwood, 52-50, in December.

“They believe they can win and they definitely have the talent,” he said.

Canyon Springs has good size and speed with a great transition game. But for all the clever passes and double-pumps, it’s difficult to fathom equal success without Risper, who has signed with Vanderbilt.

“If anybody’s down, she’ll say something to lift you up,” said point guard Ebony Ward, who averaged 11.1 points and 5.6 assists. “She’s smart on the court, very mature. She holds the team together.”

Playing without Risper last summer may have had the biggest effect on the Cougars.

She suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in May. The team in general, and two players in particular, Ward and junior guard Lauresha Hawkins, improved greatly because they didn’t have Risper to rely on.

Still, it’s Risper’s court presence that has sustained the Cougars since her return in the seventh game of the season. In her debut, she scored 23 points in a 68-61 upset of Forestville (Md.) Bishop McNamara, at the time ranked No. 4 nationally by USA Today.

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Two nights later, Canyon Springs lost to Ventura, 67-59, in a game where Risper scored 22.

But they haven’t lost since.

“If you’re on a roll and you’ve got momentum, and you’ve got the confidence they have, you get to a point where you’re unbeatable,” Larson said.

“They don’t have the biggest kids or the quickest guards, but they do have a lot of those intangibles. Risper is the No. 1 intangible.”

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