Sailors pick up pace for win

Bryce Alderton

The Newport Harbor High girls basketball team nearly got caught

looking beyond nonleague visitor Whitney Tuesday night.

But then came the fourth quarter.

Senior Victoria Swigart shot five of five from the field en route

to scoring 14 of her team-high 18 points in a 25-point final period

for the Sailors, who turned away Whitney, 52-41.

Newport (6-4) sleep-walked through the first three periods in a

half-court game, but found its flow with fluid fast breaks that

crumbled the Wildcats’ zone in the final quarter.

Swigart also grabbed 10 rebounds, recording her second consecutive

double-double. All her points came in the second half after she sat

out nearly half the first two quarters following her third foul with

6:17 remaining before halftime.

Newport senior Jillianne Whitfield, whose three-pointer gave

Newport the lead for good at 38-35 with 4:30 to go in the game,

finished with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Kristi

Eddington tallied eight points and four rebounds. Senior Allyson

Stoltz (six points) tallied two of her seven assists in the final

period as the Sailors pushed the ball up court relentlessly, often

finding Swigart in the post, who used her height advantage for easy

layups.

“We finally seemed to be pumped up and ready,” Swigart said about

where the newfound energy came from in the fourth quarter.

“[Stoltz] came in and brought the whole team up,” Whitfield said.

“We try to run lanes and not try to set up because we don’t have a

lot of height.”

Whitney’s two-three zone confused Newport for the first three

quarters, enough to build a 28-27 lead heading into the final period.

The score was tied 6-6 and 16-16 at the end of the first and second

quarters, respectively.

Thompson struggled to find an explanation for the slow start.

“I’m not sure if it was having the whole day off and not being in

school or if they slept the whole day, but that was not the team I

know,” Thompson said. “We weren’t moving our feet and getting to the

ball. We talked about stopping [Whitney’s Rachel Ny] by getting

people with faster legs on her and we did that [in the fourth

quarter].”

Ny scored nine of her 28 points in the final quarter, but none

after a bucket trimmed Newport’s lead to 40-39 with 3:57 left. Ny

shot 63% (12 for 19), most of the time slashing toward the hoop and

throwing up acrobatic one-handed floaters that found the bottom of

the net.

Thompson used junior April Slater (three points), Whitfield and

Stoltz on Ny, attempting to make the Wildcat go to her right, away

from her shooting hand.

“She is so fast and small,” Whitfield said. “I knew she was going

to drive, so I tried to make her pop back to shoot and get a hand in

her face.”

Thompson alerted the Sailors before the game that Whitney didn’t

have much height, a rarity when facing Newport, which features

5-foot-11 freshman Brittany Deyan (two rebounds) as its tallest

player.

“We were cocky,” Swigart said.

That and the upcoming trip to Juneau, Alaska, for the Capital City

Classic, which begins Saturday, was on the Sailors’ minds as well,

Whitfield said.

“But Thompson kept reminding us to get through [Tuesday’s] game

before Alaska,” Whitfield said.

Senior Kristi Koon came off the bench to score four points while

Ivonn Melo added a pair for Newport, which faces Olympic High from

Bremerton, Wash., at 1 p.m. Saturday at Juneau-Douglas High.

*--*

Nonleague

Newport Harbor 52, Whitney 41

Score by Quarters

Whitney 6 10 12 13 -- 41

Newport 6 10 11 25 -- 52

Whitney -- Goncalves 0, Lai 4, Kanemaru 5, Ny

28, Chiang 2, Lee 2, Liu 0, Park 0, Nguyen 0,

Wyley 0, Nalty 0. 3-pt. goals -- Kanemaru 1.

Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- Coach.

Newport -- Swigart 18, Eddington 8, Lawrence

0, Whitfield 11, Stoltz 6, Koon 4, Slater 3,

Melo 2, Trobman 0, Deyan 0, Celek 0. 3-pt.

goals -- Whitfield 1, Slater 1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*