YAKIMA — Watch and marvel as Port Angeles girls basketball sophomore post Eve Burke bobs and weaves and seems to disappear along the baseline in the Roughriders’ 2-3 zone offense, only to pop up close to the hoop for high-percentage shots.
Her innate ability to sneak into and out of space brings to mind martial artist Bruce Lee’s most famous philosophy: “Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water in the cup, it becomes the cup. Put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or creep or drip or crash. Be water, my friend.”
Lee believed heavily in adaptability, that a fighter must be ready to adapt to whatever situation they face, to flow like water around and through an opponent. That if one way doesn’t work, a fighter should be prepared to adapt and find a way that does.
Burke, an undersized 5-foot-7 post is frequently guarded by and tasked with guarding players in the 5-10 to 6-foot range. Against those bigger, taller opponents, Burke displays an ease of motion and a smooth quality that calls to mind Lee’s description of water.
The sophomore gets to spots on the floor and gets shots in the basket against those bigger, taller opponents with impressive precision.
She did it at the Class 2A state tournament Wednesday morning against No. 11 Clarkston, scoring 18 points on 6 of 10 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds against a Bantams’ squad that featured four players taller than 5-11.
Her play did not go unnoticed by Olympic League coaches, which voted her on to the first-team All-Olympic League squad earlier this week, or by Port Angeles head coach Michael Poindexter who gave her a pretty lofty compliment.
“Eve has the best sense of space on the floor of any player I’ve ever coached,” Poindexter said earlier this season. “And I would have said that last year [as a freshman]. She just zeroes in on gaps so well.”
As Burke finds space she also keeps an eye out for the basketball.
“We tell kids if you cant see the ball, the ball can’t see you in relation to defenders and she understands it on a deep level,” Poindexter said. “It goes beyond just lurking behind a zone and reading gaps. In man to man offenses she’s a good screener and when she gets bigger people guarding her, Eve has an advantage there with her quickness. In man to man other things pop up and she can still score.
“And in transition she runs the floor so well. You watch Eve in transition it’s beautiful. It’s that sense of space, an economy of movement, she never wastes anything. She’s fast, knows when to get out, gets into space, displays good body control and she makes [her shots]. That motivates people on a subconscious level to pass her the ball.”
In Eve’s own words: “I know where to go and people know how to pass me the ball,” Burke said.
One of those teammates who knows how to pass her the ball is junior point guard Millie Long. Long and Burke’s chemistry in connecting on passes, some of them rifled by Long into small windows of space, can quickly heat up the scoreboard.
“She’s just awesome,” Long said of Burke. “I love how she knows where to be all the time. She knows every little spot, how to setup the passing lane and how to get the ball. She’s awesome at finishing, she has a great touch on her layups.”
Long said Burke possesses a calmness and a sneakiness.
“I don’t know how she does it,” Long said. “She’s super calm, where a lot of other people would freak out if they saw a big post. She’s good about going up strong. She’s sneaky. She knows how to weave through people, most girls kind of truck through people and try and get foul calls. She’s really good at going around people.”
Even when they know it’s coming, it’s still a challenge to check Burke in practice.
“All the time, she gets us at practice all the time,” Riders junior Jaida Wood said. “We know Eve’s game really well and she still gets us all the time.”
Burke has worked on her jump shot, gradually adding to her mid-range game and working to bolster a 3-point shot that she will need to hone if she wants to play college basketball.
If she can begin to hit from beyond the arc consistently as a junior and senior, opponents better look out. She already knows how to find the space needed to get off a shot quickly and efficiently.
“She does her thing and it’s not effortless,” Poindexter said. She just does her thing and is quiet and serious about it.”