Girls basketball: CdM buried early

Tony Altobelli

SAN CLEMENTE - Corona del Mar High girls basketball coach Elbert

Davis found a ray of sunshine in Friday night’s 63-32 pool-play loss to

Hurricane San Clemente at the San Clemente Holiday Hoop-la Tournament.

Short-handed with injuries to Kristin McCoy (back) and Jackie McCoy

(ankle), combined with playing against the No. 3 team in Orange County,

the Sea Kings were beaten in every phase of the game in the first half,

according to Davis.

“I thought we played with no life,” Davis said. “So I challenged the

girls at halftime. I told them to have pride when wearing that uniform.

There is no mercy rule, so I pushed the girls to step it up in the second

half.”

CdM (3-3) actually battled the Tritons (7-0) to a 23-23 standoff in

the second half, behind Courtney Kawata’s 11 points and Kellyann Klien’s

eight points. The duo hit five of the Sea Kings’ six three-pointers.

Unfortunately for the Sea Kings, that offense needed more than a

quarter to warm up, as San Clemente jumped led, 26-0, at the end of the

first quarter. The lead grew to 30-0 before Rachel Sessum’s basket with

5:30 left in the first half ended the drought.

CdM will play Murrieta Valley today at 3:30 p.m., followed by Irvine

Tuesday at 6 p.m. as pool play continues.

SAN CLEMENTE HOLIDAY HOOP-LA TOURNAMENT

Pool play

San Clemente 63, Corona del Mar 32

Score by Quarters

Corona del Mar 0 9 11 12 - 32

San Clemente 26 14 17 6 - 63

Corona del Mar - Kawata 11, Klien 8, Marks 5, Hawkins 4, Pham 2,

Sessum 2, Snell 0, Gruber 0, Alateha 0, Luu 0.

3-pt. goals - Kawata 3, Klien 2, Marks 1.

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.

San Clemente - Kristen 12, Brown 10, Blackshire 6, Walker 6, Maule 6,

Buffum 7, Pluimer 6, Housley 4, Ela 4, Thomas 2.

3-pt. goals - Brown 1, Buffum 1 .

Fouled out - None.

Technicals - None.