Let the debate begin
Candidates were plentiful, but this quintet tops the list
As was the case with our quest to find the all-time starting five for Lehigh Valley-area boys basketball a few weeks ago, we expected considerable debate over who should be in the all-time starting five for local girls basketball.
When we asked for your thoughts, you didn’t hold back and submitted hundreds of candidates. With the exception of one special player who was a near-unanimous choice, the spectrum of great players covered nearly every corner of the area and several decades of basketball.
Coming up with an all-time top five wasn’t an easy process, and just as was evident with the boys it’s a highly subjective issue, with everyone wanting their school, teammates and era to be represented. While the debate will rage on, there is no debate when it comes to the overall success of girls basketball in the Lehigh Valley.
Few other sports have produced more team state championships than girls hoops, starting with Allentown Central Catholic winning the first girls state title at the Farm Show Arena in
Harrisburg in 1973. Since then 30 other District 11 girls teams have won state gold, including 13 others from the Lehigh Valley (Lehigh and Northampton counties).
In addition to the 1973 champions, six other CCHS teams have won state gold, so it’s understandable that the Vikettes will be well-represented on our list of all-time greats.
After listening to readers and talking to a few former and current coaches, we whittled down a lengthy list of great players to five. Here’s a look at those special players. 19 rebounds and nine steals to lead her team to a 68-56 win. She followed it up with a 30-point effort in a win over Hempfield in the first round of the state tournament, and 23 points, 27 rebounds and seven assists in a second-round win over Plymouth-Whitemarsh. She scored 13 straight points in one stretch in a performance that coach Lynda Ippolito called “one of the powerful games of Debbie’s career.”
Her career ended with a 22-point effort against Lancaster-McCaskey in a one-point loss in the state quarterfinals. She then went on to a solid career at Penn State.
Christman was a three-time class president and graduated seventh in her class. She was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. years at Central may have been the most exciting.” she was a near-unanimous selection when fans were asked to submit their all-time top five.
She was the Gatorade, Parade Magazine and Naismith national player of the year in 1991 after completing a career in which she scored 3,025 points, which is the most by any Lehigh Valley player, girl or boy.
She was nicknamed “Spinderella” and the “Ponytailed Princess of Hoop” and went on to play college basketball at Notre Dame and Tennessee, where she helped legendary coach Pat Summitt win a national title in 1996. She was chosen the most outstanding player of the 1996 Final Four and the NCAA Woman Athlete of the Year in the state of Tennessee.
She played pro basketball from 1996-2002 and spent five seasons as an assistant coach at South Carolina.
“Michelle was the most talented player we’ve had and made the game look so easy,” Kopp said.
Marciniak was inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame in 2012. She was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and was a member of the first class of District 11 Hall of Fame inductees. She gave the eulogy at Summit’s funeral in 2016.
She is now a prominent businesswoman with Sheex, an athletic-performance bed linen company in Marlton, New Jersey, which she co-founded.
“There’s no doubt that I am who I am today because of the start I got in Allentown,” Marciniak said in a 2011 interview with The Morning Call. “I will never forget Allentown and Allentown has been great to me.
“I just want to give a message to kids that I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve been there and done that, and [I’d] tell them it’s not only about the basketball, but it’s also about the qualities you learn from basketball that will propel you in life.”