Funny thing about Saturday’s Westown Ford Girls’ All-Star Classic — the game seemed to run long (every all-star game seems to run long), but sitting here looking at videotape, I wish they could play it all over again.

There were some great moments. Brown County’s Leah Kassing had a terrific game. Fully recovered from shoulder surgery that forced her to miss the entire volleyball season and most of the basketball season, she really seems to be rounding back into basketball form. She came back for the last few basketball games this season, and though she put up some points, she was struggling to shake off the rust. It was great to see her close out her high school career with a really solid game. You could tell she was having fun, and that she enjoyed having a chance to play one more high school game. I think she’ll have a great college career.

Carrollton’s Dana Schnettgoecke — what can you say? She was the area’s best three-point shooter this year, and she proved it again Saturday night, beating out Greenfield’s Lindsay Gruen in a shoot-off to determine the three-point shootout champion. Schnettgoecke and Gruen made nine three-pointers apiece in the first round.

I was glad to see West Central’s Kelsey Little have the game she had. She and Pleasant Hill’s Devin Wombles each scored 15 points. Little averaged just over six points per game this season. But scoring really wasn’t her job. She held together a very young group of Lady Cougars as they survived some early season growing pains and became one of the area’s best teams.

And then there was Routt’s Melissa Nichols, diving on the floor, making steals and just generally wreaking havoc as the South applied a little full-court pressure to get back in the game. Nichols scored 13 points. She didn’t make any threes, but one of my favorite plays was one she made on a three she missed. Shooting near her own team’s bench, her shot rattled out and bounded toward the far side of the court. She darted after the ball, dashing past a couple of players in the free-throw lane to grab her own miss in the opposite corner.

The game was another great event, I thought. It wasn’t close to a sellout, but how many people watched the game doesn’t matter. Not in the least. What matters is that all these girls got one more chance to play a game they love before moving on with their lives.

Gosh, they were great players.

And they will be missed.

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