Tars humbled

Patrick Laverty

On the way to its best season in Coach Jen Thompson’s three years at

the helm, the Newport Harbor High girls basketball team received a

gauge-type game Thursday against Sea View League favorite Woodbridge

to see just how far they’ve come.

While the news coming out of the game isn’t all that bad, the

result was. The Warriors hammered the host Sailors, 64-35, to remain

undefeated and in first place in league.

But despite the loss, as ugly as it was at times, Newport Harbor

(12-7, 3-2) still finishes the first round of league play in a

three-way tie for second place. It’s a much better position than

Thompson’s first two seasons, when the Sailors won four games

combined in league.

“We’ve never been in this position,” Thompson said. “We have

never, ever held a second-place position.”

To finish in second place though, will take a much better effort

than the Sailors gave against Woodbridge (15-5, 5-0).

And that effort will have to improve immediately as Harbor travels

to Foothill on Tuesday and Aliso Niguel on Thursday, both of which

are also tied for second.

The Sailors lost to Foothill by six in the league opener and

defeated Aliso Niguel, 48-45.

“You want to be able to learn from a game like this,” Thompson

said of her team’s performance against Woodbridge. “I think that the

girls understand that. But at the same time, we’ve got to move

forward. We have a huge week next week where we play two good teams

on the road.”

Neither of those teams, however, are as good as Woodbridge and

Newport Harbor stayed with the Warriors for one quarter.

After allowing Woodbridge to sprint to an 8-0 lead within the

first two minutes, the Sailors fought back to 14-10 after a Victoria

Swigart three-pointer with 2:53 remaining in the first quarter.

But Harbor didn’t make another field goal for the remainder of the

first half, scoring just one point, on a Vanessa Miller free throw

with 1:29 left in the second quarter, over the next 10 minutes, 53

seconds.

“Personally, I thought we had a good, strong first quarter,”

Thompson said. “I don’t know if it’s second-quarter jitters or what

it is. We just went out there in the second quarter and we were very

tentative. It was almost like we were playing scared.”

After Swigart’s three-pointer, Harbor was outscored, 15-1, in the

first half, as Woodbridge took a 29-11 lead at intermission.

The Sailors shot just 4 of 26 in the first half (15%), and were

outrebounded 24-15.

Woodbridge continued to pound the glass in the second half,

finishing with a 42-26 rebounding advantage and extending its lead to

more than 30 points.

The Sailors did hold Woodbridge’s leading scorer, sophomore Emily

Friedman, to six points.

But 5-foot-11 sophomore Jacqueline Erickson finished with 16

points and nine rebounds for the Warriors, who entered the game with

a 23.8-point average margin of victory in league play.

Victoria Swigart led the Sailors with eight points and seven

rebounds, but all of her points came in the first quarter. Kristi

Eddington and Ivonn Melo added six points each.

*--*

Sea View League

Woodbridge 64, Newport Harbor 35

Score by Quarters

W’bridge 16 13 13 22 -- 64

Harbor 10 1 11 13 -- 35

Woodbridge -- Friedman 6, Erickson 16,

Nichols 6, Reyes 9, Scott 8, Murphy 2,

McLaughlin 7, Falk 8, Watts 2. 3-pt. goals --

McLaughlin 1, Reyes 1. Fouled out -- None.

Technicals -- None.

Newport Harbor -- Swigart 8, Stoltz 2,

Whitfield 5, Miller 3, Eddington 6, Trobman

3, Celek 0, Koon 0, Melo 6, Deyan 0, Lawrence

2. 3-pt. goals -- Trobman 1, Swigart 2, Melo

1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*