Siebka

Tina Lipps and Morgan Siebka have vastly different styles on the high school basketball court.

Lipps is a 5-foot-11 beast in the paint. The senior forward on the Union girls basketball team finished her career with 1,163 points and 1,125 rebounds.

Siebka is a 5-foot-6 guard with the quickness of a water bug. The Slippery Rock sophomore led all Butler County girls basketball players in scoring at 15.7 points per game and also had nearly five steals per contest.

While the way they did things was different, the results were the same. That's why both were named co-winners of the 2010-11 Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Player of the Year award.

“It's a huge honor,” Lipps said. “I'm humbled by it. It shows all the hard work and hours of practice paid off.”

Lipps and Siebka rarely crossed paths on the court. But the two kept up with the exploits of the other through statistics and articles in the Butler Eagle.

Both said they were thrilled to share the award with the other.

Lipps had a monster season for Union, a team that stormed to a 22-win season and a berth into the PIAA Class A playoffs.

Lipps averaged 15.4 points and more than 10 rebounds per game this season.

She is only the fourth player in the 40-year history of the girls basketball program at Union to finish her career with more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

“It's pretty cool to put my name in the record books like that,” Lipps said. “Growing up watching Union Damsels' basketball, you just dream of something like that. Watching Bethany Koch and the others, you just wanted to be like them.”

Two players Lipps grew up watching, Koch and Nikki Davis, were assistant coaches under Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Coach of the Year Josh Meeker this season. Both were post players during their careers and both worked extensively with Lipps this season.“It was great having them around,” Lipps said. “They were really a big asset to me and a reason for my success.”While Lipps was a senior leader for the Damsels, Siebka had a less defined role at the beginning of the season.Siebka played a few minutes per game last season as a freshman on a Rockets team loaded with seniors.With those seniors gone this year, Siebka found herself in unfamiliar territory.“I think last year I was a little hesitant,” Siebka said. “I always played hard, but I had all those seniors around me. I was afraid to mess up and let them down.”Siebka, though, asserted herself from the start this season. She was consistent from the opening tip of the season until the final buzzer of the final game.As well as leading the county in scoring, Siebka averaged nearly five steals, five rebounds and more than two assists per game.Even when teams keyed on her, she found ways to score. The development of a mid-range and 3-point jumper made her a threat from anywhere on the court.“I think this was a really big step for me,” Siebka said. “I think staying consistent and playing well really helped me adjust.”The scary part for Slippery Rock opponents is that Siebka may be just scratching the surface on her skills.“I would say every aspect of Morgan's game became better this year,” said Slippery Rock coach Adrienne Orris. “Even as the season went on, she got better. The sky is the limit for her. That's good for me the next two years because she's on my team.”

Here is how voting for theButler Eagle Girls BasketballPlayer of the Year Award, which was conducted by the Eagle sports staff, broke down:<B>Player (schhol) Points</B>Tina Lipps, Union 14Morgan Siebka, SR 14Amanda Sloan, Moniteau 7Caitlin Baxter, Butler 5

Lipps