Mustangs win easily

LAGUNA BEACH — Costa Mesa High girls’ basketball coach Jim Weeks knew that, no matter how his team played, it stood a good chance of winning Tuesday night at Laguna Beach.

In terms of talent alone, the Breakers, now 0-20, can’t measure up to Weeks’ squad.

“They’ve got two nice players, but I’ve got 10 nice players,” said Weeks after the Mustangs posted a 66-38 win, improving to 12-10 and 2-1 in the Orange Coast League.

The bigger challenge Weeks faced on Tuesday is making Costa Mesa play up to its potential. In that area, he saw both positives and negatives.

“We’re having a hard time playing several minutes in a row without breaking down mentally,” Weeks said. “We’re trying to work on some help defense and make them take tough shots. Sometimes we helped real well tonight, and sometimes we didn’t.”

Senior center Jennifer Courtney helped the Mustangs all night long, scoring a team-high 18 points and pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds.

Courtney was three-for-three in the first quarter, when Costa Mesa opened up an 18-1 lead after Miriah Malapira’s three-pointer.

“We’ve got to step it up,” Courtney said. “We play against hard teams, we step it up. We play against teams that are lower than us, we play down. It’s kind of up and down. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and play normally.”

Laguna Beach cut its deficit to 24-14 after Emily Larose’s three-pointer with 5:30 left until halftime. But the Mustangs soon began to wear down the Breakers, and Kathy Trinh’s three-ball from the corner gave Costa Mesa a 36-18 lead with under a minute to go in the half.

The Breakers, who had only two real options on offense in Larose and Brittany Clark, would never challenge again. Larose and Clark combined for all 38 of Laguna Beach’s points.

“[Clark] is a quality player, she really is,” Weeks said. “She’s hard to guard. They earned a lot of those points, but we’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Senior center Ana Gutierrez had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Mustangs — both career highs — and senior forward Nikki Brannon added six points and 11 boards.

Trinh had 12 points, including three straight jumpers in the third quarter. But she, too, was critical of her team’s effort.

“If we know we can beat them, that affects our playing,” Trinh said. “It’s not just our offense but our defense.”

A much bigger test comes Friday night, when the Mustangs play host to Calvary Chapel. The Eagles come into the game at a perfect 4-0 in the Orange Coast League, and could all but clinch the league championship with a win.

Costa Mesa lost at Calvary Chapel, 41-37, on Jan. 16.

“Hopefully when we play them at our house, then we won’t mess around,” Courtney said. “We’ll let Friday speak for itself. May the best team win, whoever wants it more.”

Orange Coast League

Costa Mesa 66,

Laguna Beach 38

Score by Quarters

Costa Mesa

20

18

18

10

—

66

Laguna Beach

7

13

9

9

—

38

Costa Mesa -- Courtney 18, Trinh 12, Gutierrez 10, Figueroa 6, Brannon 6, Werdel 4, Gentling 3, Malapira 3, Langmos 2, Rosello 2.

3-pt. goals -- Trinh 1, Gentling 1, Malapira 1.

Fouled out -- None.

Technicals -- None.

Laguna Beach -- Larose 20, Clark 18.

3-pt. goals -- Larose 1, Clark 1.

Fouled out -- None.