From the sports archives: San Mateo High School's Ujihara erupts

You've seen the term before, probably read it once or twice a week in a local newspaper -- a player is hot and nearly unstoppable, it is said he or she is "in the zone."

But then you run into a night like last Friday, in which San Mateo's Grayce Ujihara truly was there and the term doesn't quite do her justice anymore.

In that game against division-leading Terra Nova the senior guard went off and hit 10, yes 10, 3-pointers, scoring 39 of her team's 66 points in a 79-66 loss, setting a new Peninsula Athletic League game record for 3's in a game.

"The whole team was pumped," Ujihara said when describing her team's attitude heading into her final game at home. "That whole day at school, walking down the hallways and we saw someone it was, 'Yeah, we're ready. Let's go, let's get this game.'"

You couldn't have written a better script for Ujihara if you tried. For four years, the guard has called San Mateo home and on Senior Night, in front friends, family and the person who held that record, her coach Nancy Dinges, Ujihara made all other "in the zone" performances seem unworthy of the title, hitting 10 of 13 shots from beyond the arc.

Her Friday performance followed a Tuesday night game in which she hit six more bombs against Menlo-Atherton in a 58-51 win.

For her efforts, Ujihara is the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week.

"It was definitely emotional," Ujihara said. "Spending the last four years in that gym, playing every single day. I think I'm just really happy I got to go out with a bang."

What a bang it was. For the week, Ujihara scored 66 of her team's 124 points, hitting 22 field goals -- 16 of which were 3's.

"She was just hot," said coach Nancy Dinges, who had the best seat in the house Friday night and all season long. "Her shooting motion was perfect. I can see that she really wanted the game. The past two games, she's really taken the leadership of this team. And I think with that she's become the shooter that she has become."

Dinges set the record with nine 3-pointers in her sophomore season at Hillsdale High.

"Honestly, I think she was more excited than I was," Ujihara said about taking the record from her coach. "She was pretty happy. We always joke around with it. At the time, when I hit 10, a bunch of my teammates told me [they were] high-fiving our coach, she was all excited. It's really nice to have that inspiration."

It's been quite the journey for Ujihara, who's been a four-year starter for the Bearcats and has taken her senior season to try and assure her legacy isn't just that of a scorer.

"To see her develop as a player, and as a player and as leader ... I think the younger players look to her," Dinges said. "I think Grayce is the kind of player that makes her teammates better around her. If we're down, the players look to her. She brings more than just scoring points to win. She brings that leadership role and that determination to win."

"We have a young crew," Ujihara said. "This year I've had to step up and do the best I could for the team."

That best has the Bearcats competing night-in and night-out in the PAL's toughest division -- making Friday night's performance against the two-time reigning Bay division champions even more impressive.

"It's more of an adrenaline thing," Ujihara said of "the zone." "Once the first couple start to go in, it starts to get me in it," she said, adding that having her friends and family in the stands, cheering and motivating her, are the main reasons why she is able to find that zone -- a place all other athletes envy.