East Valley’s Brie Holecek only second Knight to reach 1,000 career points

Brie Holecek is fairly typical of the kind of leading scorer the East Valley girls basketball program develops season after season: a sharpshooter who is just as happy to pass the ball to a teammate with an open shot.

After almost four seasons playing that kind of ball, Holecek became only the second Knight to surpass 1,000 career points when she put up 20 points to lead her teammates to a 63-43 win over Pullman on Jan. 28.

“I looked at my totals at the beginning of the season, and I thought to myself that (the milestone) was doable,” Holecek said. “To actually get there is pretty cool.”

But just as cool, she insists, was the way the game went Friday night, when EV posted a 59-54 win at West Valley to tighten the final race to the Great Northern League regular-season championship.

“You know, in that game Mataya (Green) just went off and had a great game,” Holecek said. “I was so happy to watch her.

“I don’t really care about my own stats. The only one that matters to me is whether we win or lose.”

One of the statistics that stands out from that WV game is this: East Valley had 17 assists on 22 made baskets. As a team, the Knights were constantly looking for teammates with open shots and finding them with a clutch pass.

That stat is typical of most East Valley games.

This is the second straight season the team has had a player surpass 1,000 career points.

“Genesis (Wilkinson) got there last year,” coach Rob Collins said. “The records are incomplete, but I don’t know of anyone else who’s done it.”

“I loved playing with Genesis,” Holecek said. “I’ve been lucky to be able to play with some really good teammates.”

The danger in observing the achievement of a milestone comes in the failure to fully appreciate the individual component parts that go into the making of the accomplishment.

If you only look at the number of points Holecek scored you miss the way she has impacted East Valley’s basketball fortunes over the past four seasons.

“I was coming off the bench when I was a freshman,” Holecek said. “I loved that – I really loved that time. I would come in and score points and grab rebounds and none of those other teams had a clue who I was. I think I had a game where I came in and grabbed something like 15 rebounds or some crazy number like that.

“They didn’t know anything about me at all, and I just came in and played. That was a great time.”

Elle Burland, the senior and leading scorer when Holecek was a freshman, singled her out in a Spokesman-Review story before heading off to the state tournament.

“I just love (Brie) to death,” she said. “She’s young but she plays with the same select program that I play with. She has a lot of experience playing high-level basketball so this year has been no surprise for her.”

Anonymity never made it to her sophomore season.

“She’s not the most flashy player out there but she gets the job done,” Collins said. “She’s always done whatever we’ve asked of her to do. She’s had to step in at a lot of different roles for us: point, wing and post. I’ve been asking her to play about 31 minutes per game. She just does it. She’s unselfish. Right now she’s scoring at a pretty good clip, not because she’s selfish. She’s a straight team player, and that really shows this time of year when you can count on your kids to be team players.”

The number that matters most to Holecek is four.

Burland was the first EV player to play in the state tournament four straight years. Wilkinson managed it last year, and Holecek wants to join that select club this season.

More than that, she wants to bring home a fourth-straight state trophy.

The challenge will be in reaching the post.

“The league champion gets a bye right into the winner-to-state game,” Collins said. “Only two teams get to go and we have three really good teams battling it out. Someone really good is going to get left out.

“The challenge is that we could just as easily end up in a three-way tie.”

That possibility looms larger after Tuesday’s loss to Clarkston. The Bantams rallied from 16 points down to earn a 41-40 win – their only win over the Knights in three regular-season meetings.

East Valley and Clarkston now are tied for second place with 7-3 records in GNL play. West Valley is in first at 8-2 and the Eagles play their final regular-season game at home against the Bantams after splitting the first two meetings.