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.
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