Laguna Hills’ Haneef Gives All--and More

IRVINE —  The knock on Laguna Hills’ Tayyiba Haneef is that she doesn’t play with as much intensity as her teammates, but the 6-foot-6 senior showed what she is made of Saturday.

Haneef scored 19 points, aggressively got 10 rebounds and blocked eight shots as top-ranked Laguna Hills beat third-ranked Woodbridge, 55-48, in nonleague girls’ basketball.

Laguna Hills won the last two of their three meetings this season. Ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in Southern Section Division II-AA, they could play again for a section title.

Laguna Hills (17-3), named No. 1 in the county poll this week to become the school’s first No. 1 team, became the first team to win at Woodbridge since the 1992-93 season. Woodbridge (14-4) was less than a week removed from beating the second-ranked team in the state, Ventura Buena.

Woodbridge took 29 more shots, but Laguna Hills was more efficient, making 19 of 38; the Warriors were 20 of 67.

Tied at 46 after Laguna Hills blew a 10-point third-quarter lead, Haneef put back a miss by Tamara Inoue (15 points) with 2 minutes 29 seconds left to play. Haneef followed with two free throws and a 50-46 lead.

After Woodbridge’s Krissy Duperron scored inside, Haneef sank two free throws with 1:01 left for a 52-48 advantage. Haneef then grabbed a rebound on Debby Caine’s missed three-pointer that led to Whitney Houser’s fastbreak layup with 35 seconds left. Haneef added another free throw.

Laguna Hills made 15 of 19 free throws; Haneef was nine of 12. Woodbridge made two of four.

“That was the worst-refereed game I’ve seen in my life,” Woodbridge Coach Pat Quinn said. “For Haneef to play the whole game and not get a foul?”

Said Haneef: “I tried to play straight up as much as I could, but there were probably a few fouls missed on both sides.”

Woodbridge was led by Caine (18 points, six three-pointers) and Cathy Joens (12 points).

“I tried to give it everything I had,” Haneef said.