Women’s Basketball: Coast blows up for first round win

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - Mike Thornton, the Orange Coast College women’s

basketball coach, had no idea Cuesta would use a box-and-one to defend

the Pirates’ Kristen Urban. He admitted he was not prepared.

But, teammate Nadia Mojica was more than ready for Cuesta’s defense.

Mojica’s game-high of 15 points and 11 rebounds led the Pirates to a

64-39 victory over the Cougars in the first round of the Precision

Optical Coast Christmas Classic.

“I never expected that I would see that all season long,” Thornton

said. “(Cuesta) saw her play really well at their tournament. (Urban) was

just running around like a chicken with her head cut off for a long time.

But, she calmed down in the second half. I’ll take the blame for it,

though.”

Urban, a Newport Harbor High product, finished with eight points and

11 rebounds as Mojica and Megan Masuda (10 points) stepped up.

Mojica and the Pirates (7-5) played with a bit more added incentive

because they were defending their tournament title.

“We’ve been champions (of the OCC tournament) for the past two years,”

said Mojica, a 5-foot-9 sophomore forward. “It would be fun to win this

in my last year.”

Mojica positioned herself for 10 rebounds in the first half as Coast

built a 23-6 lead in the opening 14 minutes. She finished with nine

offensive rebounds.

“Making sure to box out is the way to get it done for myself,” she

said. “We’re all going to need to play smarter this year. We’ve been

beating teams that are taller than us because we’ve got it together and

made sure that we do the little things.”

The Pirates’ little things paid off huge against Cuesta (3-11). Coast

actually outrebounded the Cougars, 56-48. And the Bucs defense ended any

threat from Cuesta.

For instance, as the first half came to an end, the Cougars reeled off

an 11-0 run to pull within six, but Mojica and Urban scored two points

each in the last minute, after Cuesta turnovers, to carry a 27-17 lead

into halftime.

OCC then began the second half with a 12-2 run in the first six

minutes.

After making only 25% of their shots in the first half, the Pirates

opened up in the second half connecting for 47% and knocking down five

three pointers.

Masuda began the three-point attack 30 seconds into the second half.

And Urban sunk one in five minutes later.

And two minutes after Urban’s shot, OCC’s Janette Redmond, who

finished with eight points, hit a three-pointer and was fouled on the

attempt.

Pirates sophomore Cara Ducey rebounded the missed free throw and put

the ball back in the hoop for a 44-22 lead. The Pirates led by as many as

33.

“We’re pretty good when we shoot the ball well,” Thornton said. “But

we’re not very good when we don’t. For us to win games we have to shoot

well and play great defense. And this is one of the few teams that we’ll

outrebound.”

Orange Coast will face San Diego Mesa tonight at 7:30. Mesa defeated

El Camino 73-69 in first round action. In the other winners’ bracket of

the second round, Cerritos will take on Fullerton at 5:30 p.m.