Mustangs rally past Sea Kings

Barry Faulkner

As with most early season football, the defense was ahead of the

offense in the girls basketball opener between Costa Mesa High and

host Corona del Mar Monday night.

But it was the Mustangs, down, 19-9, with 5:29 left in the third

quarter, who came from behind most dramatically for an unlikely 33-29

nonleague victory that left both coaches shaking their heads.

“They got real cold in the fourth quarter, after we were cold

early,” said Mesa Coach Jim Weeks, who credited his defense with

triggering the turnaround after halftime.

And while the Mustangs’ man-to-man pressure did force nine of the

Sea Kings’ 15 turnovers after intermission, CdM Coach Jim Barkalow

believed his team’s failure to convert makable shots was most costly.

“We missed eight layups, or at least shots where we were close

enough to where you figure we could have flipped the ball in,”

Barkalow said.

CdM missed its first 10 field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter

to watch the 27-19 edge it took into the final period slip away.

The Sea Kings went scoreless for just more than eight minutes

after senior Colleen Skalla followed her own miss with 13 seconds

left in the third quarter for a 27-18 lead.

Senior Lauren Snell’s bucket with six seconds left broke the CdM

drought, but, by then, the Mustangs had constructed a 32-27 lead.

Cassey Brick, who scored the Mustangs’ final six points in the

last 3:31, netted a free throw with two ticks left to seal the deal.

Brick finished with eight points, while senior Suzy Trujillo paced

the winners with a game-high 10, eight of which came after

intermission.

Trujillo’s three-pointer from the right wing pulled Mesa even,

27-27, with 5:23 left in the game and capped a stretch of three

straight conversions from the field for the 5-foot-6 guard.

Bethany Vergara (seven points) started the fourth-quarter comeback

with a three-pointer and Trujillo sliced through the defense for a

layin 63 seconds later to pull the visitors within 27-24.

After Trujillo’s three ball, the two defenses held things

scoreless for nearly two minutes, before Brick sank a 15-footer on an

assist by Brittany Vergara.

Brick’s 10-foot pull-up put the Mustangs ahead, 31-27, with 41

seconds left, and CdM could not respond.

Mesa, after hitting 5 of 10 fourth-quarter field-goal attempts,

finished 11 of 42 from the field (26.2%), while CdM hit 13 of 41

(31.7%) for the game.

Weeks credited the play of sophomores Bethany Vergara, Tracy

Bjelland (five points) and Deanna Sanchez (three points off the bench

after not playing the first two quarters).

“Those three girls are really going to help us a lot as we grow,”

said Weeks, who, disgruntled by his team’s poor play in the first two

quarters, wondered aloud from the sideline “How bad can we be?”

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Weeks continued. “I knew this

would be a nice, competitive game, but I wasn’t sure we could pull it

out.”

Barkalow praised the play of Snell, who just joined the team after

contributing to a state playoff run in volleyball.

“I was very impressed with her feel around the basket, especially

for not having played basketball until a few days ago,” Barkalow

said. “We’re going to need to get her the ball this season.”

*--*

Nonleague

Costa Mesa 33, CdM 29

Score by Quarters

Costa Mesa 4 5 10 14 - 33

Corona del Mar 9 6 12 2 - 29

Costa Mesa - Trujillo 10, Brick 8, Be. Vergara

7, Bjelland 5, Sanchez 3, Cluff 0, Br. Vergara

0, Kelly 0, Akansel 0. 3-pt. goals - Trujiullo

2, Be. Vergara 1. Fouled out - None. Technicals

- None. Corona del Mar - Snell 9, Stern 7,

Skalla 6, Benbow 3, Marks 2, Wadhwa 2, Heeschen

0, Long 0. 3-pt. goals - Stern 1. Fouled out -

None. Technicals - None.

*--*