Girls basketball: Sea Kings rally comes up short

Barry Faulkner

IRVINE - Taking a page from their male schoolmates, the University

High girls basketball team drained the life out of an opponent by

draining pivotal three-point shots Tuesday night.

The result was a 46-36 Pacific Coast League victory over visiting

Corona del Mar, setting up a first-place showdown with Estancia at

Thursday at the Trojans’ gym.

With wins Tuesday, Uni and Estancia improved to 7-2 in league, while

CdM fell out of a three-way tie for the lead and now sits tied for third

with Costa Mesa, its opponent Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at CdM.

The CdM-Mesa winner Thursday will move into a tie for second with the

Uni-Estancia loser, while the CdM-Mesa loser will have to settle for an

at-large berth in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

“It’s frustrating, because we got so close, tonight,” CdM Coach Elbert

Davis said. “You only get so many opportunities to win a league title and

we missed ours tonight.”

The defending league champion Sea Kings (12-13, 6-3 in league) nearly

converted some third-quarter sloppiness by University (14-10, 7-2) into a

come-from-behind triumph.

Trailing, 31-20, with 4:09 left in the third period, CdM senior

Kristin McCoy sparked a 10-0 run with a three-pointer from the top of the

key.

Sophomore Jackie McCoy scored the next five points, before her older

sister converted a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 31-30.

Uni scored the final basket of the third quarter to take a three-point

edge into the final eight minutes, but Jackie McCoy, who finished with a

game-high 15 points, scored on a putback with 7:04 left to keep CdM

within one.

The Sea Kings, however, missed three field-goal attempts that would

have given them the lead, before a Uni foul shot made it 34-32 with 4:35

remaining.

Uni rebounded the second missed free throw, but CdM stole the ball on

two consecutive possessions. Still, the Sea Kings could not manage to

score and Uni reeled off an 10-0 spurt that included a pair of

three-pointers by junior guard Shaadi Ariazand.

By the time Mijanou Pham ended a scoring drought that spanned 5:30

with 1:36 left, it was too little too late.

Kristin McCoy finished with 14 points and matched her sister for

team-high rebounding honors with eight. But, beyond the McCoy connection,

CdM got little help at the offensive end. Its top two guards combined to

make only 1 of 18 field-goal attempts and its starting center was the

third-leading scorer with three points.

“We didn’t shoot well as a team and when we don’t shoot well, it’s

tough for us to win,” Davis said. “We just didn’t play good basketball

tonight.”

Ariazand paced the winners with 14 points, including four

three-pointers, while 6-foot-2 senior center Kirsten von Tungeln, Orange

County’s leading rebounder, helped the Uni cause with 13 point and 18

rebounds.

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

University 46, Corona del Mar 36

Score by Quarters

Corona del Mar 9 8 13 6 - 36

University 9 10 13 14 - 46

Corona del Mar - J. McCoy 15, K. McCoy 14, Hawkins 3, Kawate 2, Pham

2, Gruber 0, Klien 0, Marks 0, Snell 0, Alateha 0, Luu 0.

3-pt. goals - K. McCoy 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.

University - Ariazand 14, von Tungeln 13, Janda 6, Sutter 6, Yeo 4,

Lee 3.

3-pt. goals - Ariazand 4, von Tungeln 1, Lee 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.