DON McDERMOTT / PVT Aaryn Ellenberg, 3, a sophomore guard, helped lead Las Vegas Bishop Gorman to its third straight Nevada Class 4-A girls' basketball title Friday, with a 65-48 win against Reno. DON McDERMOTT / PVT Sheryl Krmptich is the coach of the Gaels, who are in the Sunset Region Southwest Division, which will include Pahrump Valley in the 2008-2009 season. Advertisement

RENO -- First, the good news for opponents of the Las Vegas Bishop Gorman's basketball-playing Lady Gaels.

Last weekend, the Gaels won their third straight Nevada Class 4-A state championship, beating Reno 65-48 in the Lawlor Events Center here.

Gorman, however, will lose five seniors, including NCAA Division I Texas-bound Ashley Gayle, the 6-foot-4 shot-blocking, defensive menace who can't leap tall buildings in a single bound but can cause opposing centers, forwards, and the occasional guard shooting the 3-pointer from the corner to wish they were playing another sport, like bowling.

The bad news, future rivals (including the Pahrump Valley Lady Trojans, who jump from Class 3-A to 4-A next season)? The Gaels will start their quest for a fourth straight state championship with Danielle Diamant, a 6-foot-4 rising senior, and Aaryn Ellenberg, a 5-foot-6 roadrunner and all-things-to-all-people guard.

And that is not forgetting that roaming the sideline will be coach Sheryl Krmptich, who has a major task managing all of that basketball talent, which next season will include 5-9 junior guard Colleen Savage, 5-9 junior forward Yhindra Edwards and 6-foot freshman center Chelsie Pitt, among others.

Reno's boys, led by Austin Morgan, rallied past Las Vegas Cheyenne 76-72 to win the state 4-A title Friday.

Morgan, a 5-11 junior guard, scored 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter for the Huskies, including hitting 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.

Ole Czyz, a 6-foot-8 center, added 18 points and 10 rebounds for Reno. Elijah Johnson, a top 50 national prospect for the Class of 2009, scored 19 points for Cheyenne, which had crushed Douglas Minden 93-55 in the semifinals. Johnson added eight rebounds, five steals and four assists for the Desert Shields.