By Loren Kopff
Kari Korver may not have played one minute during her senior season at Valley Christian but she is a champion in a different way for the 2011-2012 season. The UCLA-bound Korver won the American Family Insurance High School Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championship by beating out seven other girls in the perimeter shooting portion of the event.
Korver defeated Harvard-bound Shilpa Tummala 19-11 in the final round last Friday at the Alario Center in New Orleans to win the event.
“It was just a lot of fun,” Korver said. “It was a cool blessing. It was just a good time being out there. I had never been to New Orleans. I was hanging out with my brother [Kurtis] the whole time I was there.”
Korver arrived in the Crescent City last Thursday afternoon and attended the college version of the three-point competition that night. Last Saturday, Korver walked up and down the famed Bourbon Street with her brother Kurtis, a former V.C. basketball star from 2004-2008. Korver came home this past Sunday morning in time to see the tape delayed event on CBS that afternoon.
Korver was one of four participants to advance to the semifinals where she posted 18 points. She was shooting four balls worth one point each and a “money ball” worth two points each from five different locations behind the three-point arc. A maximum of 30 points could be earned in each round.
“I was nervous after the first round because I was the second group [out of four] to go and in groups of two,” Korver said. “Someone had [a score of 16] and there was another girl who had a higher score than me. I was nervous that I wasn’t going to make it to the second round.”
In the final round, Korver watched Tummala score 11 points and said she knew she was capable of getting more than 11 points but wasn’t totally sure that she would. The one drawback for Korver when she was in New Orleans was the fact that there was no mention of what high school she attends or where she’s from. And even though she won the event, Korver still wished she could play for the Lady Crusaders her senior season. Korver tore her ACL last summer and was relegated to watching every game from the sidelines.
“I wouldn’t say that [winning the competition] totally makes up for it just because playing the game is what I love to do,” Korver said. “I don’t like to just shoot three’s. It was really a cool opportunity and it gave me something exciting to look forward to for about a month.”