Laguna girls fall to CdM

Sluggish early on, Breakers fall behind in first quarter, then match Sea Kings the rest of the way in hard-fought effort. Both the Laguna girls’ and boys’ basketball teams fell to the their respective opponents from Corona del Mar High in a doubleheader on Wednesday night.

The start to the girls’ game turned out to be an eerie precursor to what was to come in the boy’s game that was to follow.

Corona del Mar blazed out to a fast start and rode that momentum all the way through to post a 64-45 Pacific Coast League victory at Dugger Gym.

In the game that tipped off afterward, the Corona del Mar boys’ team also used a hot start en route to a 71-53 win over Laguna.

In the girls’ rivalry game, the visiting Sea Kings grabbed an early double-digit lead and built upon it to take a 26-9 lead after the first eight minutes of play.

The teams played on even terms the remainder of the way, though.

Laguna, in fact, outscored Corona del Mar in the second quarter, limiting the Sea Kings to 14 points. Still, the Breakers trailed, 40-25, at the intermission.

There was only a four-point difference between the teams in the second half of play.

“One thing we did tonight was do a better job of bringing the ball up the court,” Laguna coach Nicholas Ilagan said. “Our big problem, though, still seems to be a serious lack of communication out on the court.

“Defensively, and this dates back to the Northwood game, we’ve had a tendency to leave an opponent’s best player open. That’s led to some easy baskets,” he added.

Corona del Mar was able to capitalize on Laguna’ defensive mistakes in staking its way to an early big lead.

Another loss within the loss came in the third quarter, when shooting guard Tess Grogan suffered a mild concussion and left the game.

Three Breakers scored in double figures, led by 18 points from Brittany Clark. Emily LaRose hit a pair of three-point shots and finished with 11 points, and Claire Bevacqua added 10 points for the Breakers.

Corona del Mars’ Katie Schulte was the game’s top scorer with 24 points.

“They have a very solid point guard and some great role players,” Ilagan said. “They took advantage of all our mistakes tonight.”

Laguna plays at Tesoro at 5:15 p.m. today, followed by the boys’ varsity game at 7 p.m., as the first-half of league play comes to an end.

The Breakers, who have dropped four-straight league games since opening PCL play with a victory over Beckman, will contend with a Tesoro squad that is coming off a 77-29 whipping of Beckman on Wednesday.

The win was the fourth in five league games for the Titans.

“Tesoro is played much better than anybody expected,” Ilagan said, adding that he’ll find out Thursday if Grogan is available to play against the Titans. “If we don’t have Tess, that takes away 10 points from our offense and defensively, she’s a pest on defense.”

In previous league action, Laguna fell to visiting University, 65-49.

The Breakers fell behind by 13 points at the half and couldn’t recover.

Tess Grogan, Brittany Clark and Claire Bevacqua each scored 12 points for Laguna.

Upcoming schedule:

Today: at Tesoro, 5:15 p.m.

Wednesday: at Beckman, 5:15 p.m.

Jan. 27: Northwood, 5:15 p.m.20060120itb7b0ncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / COASTLINE PILOT(LA)Laguna Beach High School’s Brittany Clark (5) goes up for a shot against University’s Casey Gomez (44) during their match on Friday evening at Laguna Beach High School. University came out on top, 65-49.