Swigart ignites Sailors past CdM

Bryce Alderton

The Newport Harbor High girls basketball team came out after halftime

in its Back Bay duel with host Corona del Mar determined to take fate

into its own hands.

The Sailors bucked recent trends of low-scoring second and third

quarters with an uptempo style and rolled past the Sea Kings, 44-34,

in the second nonleague meeting between the two teams this season.

Newport (9-7) escaped from a perilously close 19-16 halftime lead to outscore CdM, 14-5, in the third quarter. CdM senior guard Sarah

Stern scored all five CdM points in the quarter, but a gap of seven

minutes, five seconds separated them as the Sailors went on a 14-0

run.

“We pushed the ball a lot in the third quarter, which was what

[Newport Coach Jen] Thompson talked about at halftime,” said Sailor

senior Victoria Swigart, who tied Stern for game-high honors with 14

points -- 10 in the second half.

Swigart was a force underneath, grabbing 15 of Newport’s 30

rebounds. The Sea Kings tallied 15 boards.

“[Rebounding] was another thing Thompson talked about at

halftime,” Swigart said. “We weren’t boxing out in the first half.

[CdM] was getting a lot of third and fourth looks. Fortunately, they

weren’t putting them in.”

The Sea Kings shot 24% from the field (12 of 50) while the Sailors

made 18 of 41 field-goal attempts (44%).

“We’ve been shooting well lately, but were just cold [Saturday],”

CdM Coach James Barkalow said. “We forced shots and could have made

good ones great ones.

“The game plan was to zone and make [the Sailors] beat us from

shooting from the field. But we tend to get lazy in the zone and to

be more aggressive, I switched to man to man.”

Barkalow said CdM played “10 times harder [Saturday]” than in

Newport’s 60-34 win Dec. 5, each team’s season opener. “[Saturday] we

were energized from the start and played hard the whole game and I am

extremely happy about that.”

The Sailors led, 33-21, at the end of three quarters and twice

stretched the advantage to 16 in the fourth quarter, before CdM

scored the game’s final six points.

Newport senior point guard Jillianne Whitfield finished with nine

points while junior Kristi Eddington tallied eight points to go with

six rebounds. Every Newport starter scored including Ciara Lawrence

(four points) and Allyson Stoltz (two points).

CdM senior Lauren Snell scored six of her eight points in the

first half while Kate Heeschen tallied three points, all on free

throws, and had four rebounds.

CdM (6-8) took its first lead since 2-0 when Heeschen made the

back end of a one-and-one situation with 6:36 to go in the first half

to make it 11-10. Two Whitfield free throws and two layups by

Eddington, one a rebound off her own miss, gave Newport a three-point

lead before a three by CdM sophomore Kelly Kawata evened the score at

16.

The closest the Sea Kings, who had won three in a row entering

Saturday’s contest, came was 19-18 on a Stern layup from an assist by

Kristina Wayte to open the second half.

Two Sailors would often trap a ballhandler in the corner or near

the sideline and communication became a problem.

“Wherever Sarah was, [the Sailors] talked,” Barkalow said. “[The

Sailors] would come to set screens and no one would be there to help

out. We didn’t talk enough and communicate to one another.”

Stern who added three steals, had scored 21 points in each of her

last two games, but Newport’s defense limited her to just 11 shots

Saturday.

“When she started hitting, we went man to man,” Thompson said.

Stoltz picked up her second foul with 2:23 to go in the first

quarter and didn’t return until 1:49 remained until halftime.

Newport’s bench responded.

Freshman Ivonn Melo tallied four points while April Slater scored

two and 5-foot-11 freshman Brittany Deyan added one.

Colleen Marks scored four points and knocked several balls away on

defense while Katie Schulte added two points for CdM.

The home-and-home Back Bay series this season bucked recent

history when both teams usually play just once.

But Barkalow called Thompson over the summer and both agreed to

it.

“It is fun for the girls to play once in their home gym,

especially the seniors,” Thompson said.

*--*

Nonleague

Newport Harbor 44, Corona del Mar 34

Score by Quarters

Newport 10 9 14 11 -- 44

CdM 6 10 5 13 -- 34

Newport -- Swigart 14, Eddington 8, Lawrence 4, Stoltz 2, Whitfield 9, Deyan 1,

Melo 4, Slater 2, Trobman 0, Koon 0, Celek 0.

3-pt. goals -- Swigart 2. Fouled out -- None.

Technicals -- None. CdM -- Snell 8, Wayte 0,

Benbow 0, Heeschen 3, Stern 14, Marks 4,

Kawata 3, Schulte 2, Duernberger 0, Skalla 0.

3-pt. goals -- Stern 4, Kawata 1. Fouled out

-- Heeschen. Technicals -- None.

*--*