Girls basketball: South falls

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - Costa Mesa High’s Nancy Hatsushi and the South

All-Star girls basketball team rallied from a 23-point deficit in the

second half Saturday night to pull within five, but the visiting North

held off the surge to win for the first time in nine years.

The North, led by game MVP Brandi Davis of Sonora, defeated the South,

83-75, in the Orange County All-Star basketball game at Orange Coast

College, snapping the South’s eight-year winning streak. The South still

leads the series, 16-8.

“That was scary,” Davis said of the South comeback, which started when

the North led, 72-49, with 8:39 left. “Our defense let up.”

The University of Oregon-bound Davis scored 20 points and added four

rebounds, two steals and one assist, while 6-foot-5 center Lindsay

Geoffroy of Los Alamitos had 12 points, six boards and two blocks for the

North. Veronica Johns-Richardson had 13 points for North Coach Wayne

Carlson (El Dorado).

“We probably let up a bit at the end, and you can’t let up against

good players,” said Carlson, who has also coached boys all-star teams in

San Diego and Pomona Valley.

The South was led by Foothill’s Kristen Mann (headed for UC Santa

Barbara), who scored 18 points (16 in the second half) and added 11

rebounds and four assists. El Toro’s Carrie Twaddel had 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

“We didn’t play real well in the first half, but we came back strong,”

South Coach Nicole Quinn of Santa Ana Valley said.

Hatsushi, a 5-4 standout who scored 1,008 points in four seasons, had

two points (both on free throws), two rebounds and one assist.