Girls’ Division II : Vista Runs Away From Valencia

SAN DIEGO —  The Valencia girls’ basketball team knows what a day late and a dollar short really means.

Thursday night, host Vista caught Valencia flatfooted in a Division II girls’ semifinal of the Southern California Regionals basketball playoffs, defeating the Tigers, 59-38.

Top-seeded Vista (28-3) advanced to Saturday’s final at the Los Angeles Sports Arena against Anaheim Katella, a 50-43 winner Thursday over Pasadena Muir. Placentia finished 21-10.

“We surprised a lot of teams with our running game,” Vista Coach Joe DeMaria said. “We were making them look pretty bad in the first half. They weren’t expecting us to run so well, and it took them too long to adjust to us.”

After falling behind, 36-13, at halftime, Valencia managed to outscore the hosts, 25-23, in the second half by switching to the man-to-man defense it had relyed on all season.

“I didn’t expect them to play such good man-to-man defense,” Vista center Chris Enger said.

The switch, coupled with a foul scare for Enger--she had four with 6:15 left--enabled the Tigers to get some momentum going and pull to within 14 with 5:13 remaining in the third. But the game was never really in doubt.

Valencia Coach Debi Woelke questioned her tactic of playing a foreign defense early in the game.

“We practiced with the zone for one day,” Woelke said, “but it just wasn’t successful today. In the second half, after we made the switch, we played even with them.”

Enger, after her 43-point performance against Canyon on Tuesday, finished with a game-high 23 points. Kelli Schott and Dana Christofferson added 17 and 14.

“Shutting down Chris is always the obvious choice,” DeMaria said, “but it’s like rolling the dice. They’d rather let Kelli or Dana hit the three points than let Chris hit the two. Other teams don’t appreciate them, but I do.”

Vista shot out to an 11-0 lead before Valencia scored on a free throw by Kristen McDonald.

But Vista continued to press and got points from four players to take a commanding 22-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“I expected them to play in the first half like they did in the second,” said Enger, who had 19 rebounds and 13 blocked shots.