It all starts with defense and ‘team’

Balance. On any given night, it seems a different player has stepped

up to lead the Orange Coast College women’s basketball team to its

date tonight at 5 against Merced (30-6) at the Jenny Craig Pavilion

on the campus of the University of San Diego in the quarterfinals of

the State Tournament.

From speaking with a few of the team’s six sophomores and Coach

Mike Thornton, they all stress the “team” concept as being the

underlying, key ingredient to two postseason wins so far this year.

“We don’t have one go-to player,” said sophomore Lauren Murray,

who grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go with six points in OCC’s

51-49 victory over Compton in the Southern Regional final Saturday.

“We all trust in each other,” said Murray, who leads the Bucs with

29 blocks. “We have a lot more confidence this year. We played a lot

last year and got better.”

Lately, at least in the Pirates’ two postseason wins, freshman

Alisa Carrillo has stepped up her game, leading all scorers in both

wins. Against Compton, she hit two of her seven made free throws in

eight attempts, with 18 seconds left to give Coast the winning

margin.

“We’ve been doing good with last-minute plays,” Murray added.

“We’ve hit some shots to win games.”

Ironically, it was a shot with three seconds left that sunk the

Coast ship against L.A. Valley in the Southern California final last

season, giving this year’s sophomores added incentive to eclipse that

point this year.

“We were motivated after last year,” said sophomore forward

Candice Quiroz. “All the sophomores really wanted it. We realized we

needed to take it to another level. Personally, I thought we were one

of the top eight teams in the state at the beginning of the season,

which we are now. But we want to win it all.”

There have been times when it wasn’t as rosy, such as the final

week of the season.

Coast (27-7 and the No. 3 seed from the South) lost its final two

games to Saddleback and Fullerton. But it was the way they lost that

frustrated Thornton and the players.

Sophomore starting point guard Nancy Hatsushi, who leads the team

with 4.9 assists per game and is third in scoring (9.8 points per

game), took the losses to heart.

“Every team goes through downfalls, but it helped us more that we

didn’t play good in those games because we knew we would have to play

a lot better than that to go to the state playoffs,” Hatsushi said.

And play better they did, especially on the defensive end.

The Bucs, making their fourth appearance in the State Tournament

and first since the 1997-98 season, held Compton’s LaConia Hatcher,

the South Coast Conference Southern Division Player of the Year, to 2

of 16 from the field to net only five points, more than 15 below her

average.

“When she had the ball we would sag in an help so she could not

score,” said Hatsushi, who is deciding between Adams State in

Colorado and Concordia University in Irvine about where to continue

her basketball and academic career. “In the last two games, we’ve

showed great ability on defense.”

Thornton highlighted the defense provided by sophomore Liz Mendoza

and Quiroz on Hatcher, and said the thread goes deeper than that.

“Defense has carried us,” said Thornton, who recognizes the

valuable leadership role the sophomores have undertaken to help

freshmen Amy Shaw, Kirsten Von Tungeln, Jessica Estrada, Celeste

Haueter and Lauren Garnica.

“Leigh Marshall is as good a leader as I’ve ever had,” said

Thornton about the former Costa Mesa High guard (teammates with

Hatsushi). “They all wanted to advance to the State Tournament, you

could tell it was on their minds.”

Von Tungeln, averaging 16.4 minutes, has tallied 4.5 ppg with 5.6

rebounds per game. Shaw averages 3.1 points and has amassed 14 steals

coming off the bench.

Mendoza leads the team in scoring (13.3) and steals (67) and is

second to Hatsushi in assists per game (3.1). Quiroz collected five

of her 42 assists against Compton. Carrillo is second in scoring

(12.5) and rebounds (6.6), to Murray’s 6.9.

Sophomore Lindsey Galasso and Mendoza join Hatsushi on the

all-conference first-team. Galasso appeared in all 42 games for the

Bucs, averaging 6.4 points while connecting on 42 three-point shots.

Hatsushi and Quiroz both said the team spends time together off

the court, which makes for a smoother transition on the floor.

Now Coast faces Merced, which posted a 12-0 record in the Central

Valley Conference. The teams have never faced each other since Merced

began fielding a team in 1992.

What has gotten them this far and what will get them further?

“Our will and motivation have been huge factors for us to win

games,” Hatsushi said. “It all starts with our defense.”