Division I Girls’ Final : Edison’s Strategy Backfires : Chargers See There’s More to Point Loma Than Mann, 56-45

The thud heard early in the girls’ basketball final of the Division I Southern California Regionals Saturday at the Sports Arena was much more than Edison High School forward Stacee Johnson crash-landing after being launched by Point Loma’s Terri Mann.

With Johnson also flew all the various theories, predictions and guarantees that had Edison defeating three-time defending state champion Point Loma.

Point Loma won the game in convincing fashion, 56-45.

The thinking had been that Point Loma was too dependent on Mann, its three-time All-American center. Considering that Mann averages 38 points and 28 rebounds a game, being dependent on her seems pretty decent strategy.

But the theory said if Edison could put full-court pressure on Point Loma’s guards and keep the ball out of Mann’s hands, it had a very good chance.

However, it was Mann who put on the pressure, bringing the ball up herself against Edison’s guards. And it was Mann, not Edison who hawked the ball in the first quarter.

Edison guards Denise Ogburn (5-feet 5-inches) and Michelle Hennessey (5-3) were little more than a distraction to the 6-2 Mann. In Edison’s semifinal victory over Mission Viejo, Ogburn and Hennessey had nine steals and contributed to 19 Diablo turnovers. But when Mann wasn’t going around them Saturday, she was throwing the ball over them.

“We had heard she might bring the ball up,” said Dave White, Edison coach. “That kind of hurt us, since she could just throw the baseball pass over our guards. She’s tough.”

How tough? It was with 4:30 left in the first quarter that Mann grabbed for a loose ball that Edison’s Johnson had just reached. Mann raised the ball, throwing Johnson a foot out of bounds, steadied herself and made a layup.

The play was typical of Mann’s performance. Physical, extremely talented, many believe her to be the top girls’ prep basketball player in the nation. Point Loma is 120-1 since she arrived four years ago.

“She is so strong and so physical,” White said. “You try to use a player in practice to emulate her, but that’s impossible. She’s one of a kind.”

Though Mann’s statistics were good--19 points, 18 rebounds and 4 blocked shots--they were well below her season averages.

This was supposed to spell victory for Edison, except few took into consideration the rest of the Point Loma team. It was such players as Liza Carillo (17 points) and Monica Filer (10) who proved to be the difference.

“We have a lot of good players on this team,” Mann said. “People always center on me. They forget people like Lisa and Monica. But they showed how important they are here.”

Filer scored her 10 points as Point Loma took a 32-24 halftime lead. Filer took advantage of Edison’s defensive collapse inside on Mann to score all her points from the perimeter.

Mann led Point Loma in first-half scoring with 12 points.

In the first quarter, Filer scored six points and Mann seven to lead Point Loma to a 15-8 advantage.

Edison made just 3 of 15 attempts from the field in the first quarter.

“I think you can account that to a number of things,” White said. “One, of course, is Terri Mann. But it was also playing in the big arena and the nerves.”

Nerves? Make that downright fright when Mann tomahawk-blocked two Edison shots in the first half. After that, Edison didn’t go inside much.

“I think they thought about trying the middle,” said Lee Trepanier, Point Loma coach. “But after Terri blocked a couple, that ended most of that. I think they were a little scared to go inside after that.”

It was in the third quarter that Point Loma took firm control of the game, outscoring Edison, 15-10, and taking a 47-34 lead at the end of the quarter. Carillo had seven points in the quarter, most coming on follow shots and drop passes from Mann.

“When people key on me, Lisa is always right there on the weak side,” Mann said. “She’ll follow up my misses, or she’s all alone to take the pass when they double-team me.”

So, so much for Point Loma’s weak other players. In fact, it was Edison that had just four players score. Guard Denise Ogburn led the Chargers with 17, center Kristi Smith had 16, Johnson had 10 and reserve Krisden Tanabe 2.

“You know, it really surprised me how little respect people gave us this year,” Trepanier said. “This is a good team. People, I don’t think, gave us enough credit.”

It’s hard not to now.