Girls’ Basketball Regionals : Brea Takes On Lemoore With Elusive Goal in Sight

Can the Brea-Olinda High School girls’ basketball team win the Southern California Regional Division III final today at the Los Angeles Sports Arena?

Perhaps the question should be: Can anyone give Brea, unbeaten against California schools this season, a game?

Both questions will be answered when the Wildcats (29-2) take on Lemoore (20-7) at 11 a.m. today. The winner advances to the state Division III championship game next Saturday at Oakland.

Brea has lost only to Oregon City, Ore., and Cony, Me., in the Christ the King tournament in New York City. Brea has won Orange League titles and Southern Section titles galore. (Brea won its second 3-A title in the past four seasons last week).

But the Wildcats have never advanced this far in the state playoffs.

Coach Mark Trakh has said repeatedly in the past week that the Wildcats will settle for nothing less than a state championship.

With guards Aimee McDaniel (19 points in the semifinals against Reedley) and Tammy Blackburn (14) leading the way, Brea has set a destructive course toward that goal. The Wildcats have had only one close game in six playoff games to date. Their past three games have been particularly easy.

The Wildcats beat Reedley in the Regional semifinals, 78-48. They beat Our Lady of Peace, 81-36, in the first round. And in the 3-A final they beat Atascadero, 69-40.

Lemoore is one of two remaining hurdles in the Wildcats’ path.

The Tigers defeated Palm Desert, 54-43, in their semifinal-round game Thursday night.

Rachel Rossiter and Tonya Taylor led the Tigers, scoring 20 of the team’s 29 points in a second-half rally. Lemoore trailed, 28-25, at halftime, but pulled away thanks to Rossiter and Taylor.

Rossiter had a team-high 16 points and Taylor had 14 with eight rebounds and five steals.

“They absolutely have risen to the occasion,” Lemoore Coach Karen Wood told the Fresno Bee.

But if recent games are any indication, Lemoore will have to rise even farther to knock off Brea.

In the Division II final:

Katella (28-3) vs. Vista (28-3) at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 3 p.m.: Katella beat Muir for the second time in a week to gain the semifinals. The Knights defeated Muir, 54-48, in overtime to take the Southern Section 4-A title last Thursday.

Katella beat Muir again, 50-43, in the Division II semifinals Thursday night.

And the Knights won with a different wrinkle. Muir bottled up Joni Easterly, Katella’s leading scorer, early in the game, but her teammates responded to help pull out the victory.

Point guard Angie Gomez (14 points) and forward Margaret Harker (10) came up with big games for the Knights.

Barb Bausch, Katella’s coach, said after the game that other teams should be wary of the Knights’ supporting cast.

Said Joe DeMaria, Vista’s coach: “I think their athletes are better than the teams we’ve played so far. They’re generally a very well-balanced team as far as height.”

Talk of state championships is also new to Vista and DeMaria, who is in his sixth year. The Panthers have never won a state title. The winner goes to Oakland for the state championship game next Saturday.

Before Vista beat San Marcos in the San Diego Section Division II final last Saturday, it had never won a San Diego County title.

But DeMaria isn’t shaking with anticipation. He, as well as his team, seems to be taking all this in stride.

“I’ve got a veteran team,” DeMaria said. “We basically feel we’re long overdue.”

With enough sleep, DeMaria thinks his team will be fine. Vista stayed in a hotel in Los Angeles Friday night to avoid having to travel on game day.

“Hopefully, they’ll get a good night’s sleep,” he said. “I wanted to avoid the long bus ride on the day of the game. The only drawback is to make sure the girls don’t stay up all night.”

Chris Enger, a 6-foot-4 center, leads the Panthers with 28.3 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocked shots per game. Support from the outside comes from Dana Christofferson (14 points, eight rebounds) and Kelli Schott (12 points, seven assists).

Don Patterson contributed to this story.