Woes on and off basketball court plaguing Pirates

BRYCE ALDERTON

Mike Thornton was very candid when discussing the topsy-turvy season

his Orange Coast College women’s basketball team is having.

“We’ve had more problems this year than in my first 14 years [at

OCC],” Thornton said Friday before Coast’s Orange Empire Conference

home game against Cypress.

OCC (8-8, 1-1 in conference after falling to Cypress), fresh off

its first state title a year ago, has battled adversity from the

season’s start, Thornton said.

“We had a girl [with off-court issues who is no longer on the

team] and we had two girls with cancer,” Thornton said.

Sophomore forward Alisa Carrillo, Coast’s leading scorer and an

all-state tournament performer a year ago, had a benign lump removed

from her right breast Dec. 26, two months after the initial

diagnosis.

“[The doctors] did tests on it and it was big enough to be

cancerous,” Carrillo said.

She hasn’t missed a game this season.

“I was only nervous about the surgery,” Carrillo said when asked

if she was scared when she first learned of the lump. “I was lucky.”

Freshman guard Charlenda Van Buren had surgery in November to

remove cancerous cells in her cervix. The problem was discovered by

her doctor during a routine physical.

“I wasn’t too scared because [the cancer was recognized] during a

regular checkup,” Van Buren said. “The doctors knew what they were

doing and had it taken care of.”

But that is not all Van Buren has had to deal with.

An inflamed tendon in her left knee has caused her discomfort

since the summer. Cortisone shots were needed to lessen the pain.

“I couldn’t walk [at one point], so I had it checked out,” Van

Buren said.

Despite the maladies, Van Buren has missed just six games and is

second on the team in rebounds per game (5.4) and third in

three-point shooting (38.9%).

Freshman guard Christen D’Alessandro is out the remainder of the

season with mononucleosis. She played the first four games.

“[D’Alessandro] helped us out a lot,” Thornton said. “It has been

a bunch of things. Our kids get along fine, but there have been so

many stumbling blocks. It has been really strange.”

And that doesn’t count the inconsistent play on the court.

Thornton said the low point was the Coast Christmas Classic three

weeks ago, when the Pirates lost to Chaffey, 65-61, in the tournament

semifinals, before losing to Cerritos by 35 in the third-place game

the next day.

“That is the worst defeat I can remember and the strangest game

I’ve ever been involved in,” Thornton said about the Cerritos

contest. “We played hard but couldn’t make a shot and turned the ball

over a million times.”

But, along with the new year, a new philosophy has dawned with the

Pirates.

“The last two or three weeks have been a dramatic change,”

Thornton said. “The emotion, passion and enthusiasm are there.”

Thornton tweaked both offensive and defensive schemes during the

holiday break. Coast now uses a man-to-man defense while switching

from a five-player rotation to one that utilizes only three, a

deviation from seasons past.

“Two or three players weren’t comfortable on the perimeter, so it

was [ineffective] to teach a five-player motion, even though we were

getting better at it,” Thornton said. “It takes away opportunities

for back-door [plays] and cutbacks, but it frees [starting forward

Rhondi Naff] for more one-on-one [opportunities], which she is very

good at.

“We want to keep Alisa, Lauren Stepanski and Van Buren on the

short corner and it has helped us out a lot.”

Two weeks between games allowed Coast to regroup and Thornton was

pleased with the team’s play in wins over Santa Barbara and the

conference opener against Riverside.

“We had tremendous balance [against Riverside],” Thornton said.

Coast had four players score in double figures, led by Carrillo’s 15

points. Van Buren tallied 11 while Naff and point guard Jessica

Chades each scored 10. Amy Shaw, the team’s leader with 40

three-point field goals, and Stepanski had nine and eight points,

respectively.

Carrillo leads the Bucs in scoring (14.9 per game), field-goal

percentage (61%) and rebounds (5.7) while Naff, a Costa Mesa High

product, ranks second on the team in four categories. She is

averaging 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and has 18 steals.

She is also shooting (37.5%) from beyond the three-point line and

leads Coast with 10 blocks.

The Bucs’ offense goes through Carrillo, who has visited Cal State

Bakersfield, and also received recruiting interest from NAIA

representatives Cal Baptist and Azusa Pacific, as well as Southern

Illinois University Edwardsville, a Division II school.

“We need to get Alisa more shots. She is the primary offensive

focus,” Thornton said. “She played only eight minutes of the first

half because of foul trouble and probably 26 minutes the entire game

and still scored 15 points. She has to play 34 or 35 minutes for us.”

OCC faces stiff conference competition and Thornton won’t take any

team lightly.

“Fullerton and Saddleback are a notch above everyone else and

Irvine Valley is the best shooting team,” Thornton said. “Golden West

can beat you, too. You have to take it one game at a time. You can’t

get caught up in [the last game] if you played well or poorly.

“The [time] off gave me a chance to make some decisions and get

the juices flowing. We improved from the Santa Barbara game [a 56-42

Coast victory]. If we continue to play with the enthusiasm, we will

get better.”

At least two Coast players got well and are looking forward to the

rest of the season.

Van Buren traveled with the team on road trips when she wasn’t

playing.

“I needed to be around people that make me happy. I was happy to

be part of the team,” Van Buren said. “I’m glad to be back healthy.

It’s good to be playing.”

*

OCC Athletic Director Fred Hokanson is confident the synthetic

grass surface will be installed inside LeBard Stadium, as well as on

the school’s soccer field by September, when the fall season begins.

Bids are expected to go out Tuesday for a company to install the

surface, which will be rolled out like carpet over a base mixture of

sand and rubber.

Three weeks must pass before a bid can be accepted and the Coast

Community College District board must approve the project, expected

at a meeting the second week of February, Hokanson said.

Hokanson hopes installation at the soccer field will begin March 1

and be completed by the end of May. Completion would come later,

however, should the work be delayed by rain.

The surface will not be rolled out at the stadium until

construction is completed to make concrete walkways compliant with

the Americans with Disabilities Act. That portion of the project can

take six to eight weeks, Hokanson said.

“We’re just hoping the same company can do both [fields],”

Hokanson said.

The work inside the stadium means the Orange County high school

all-star football game -- usually played in July -- will not be held

at OCC this summer.

OCC graduation ceremonies will also be moved across Fairview Road

to Pacific Amphitheater.

“I feel bad about it, but we’re hoping to get this thing done in

time for next year,” Hokanson said.