Sage cruises to win

NEWPORT COAST — When it was over, Sage Hill School Coach Lou Silverman pointed out the player coming up with the clutch shots.

“Numerous times,” Silverman told his girls’ basketball players, none of which forgot who stepped up.

Morgan Hembarsky left her mark each time visiting Corona del Mar inched closer Friday night. Whether it was banking a three-pointer to thwart off a threat, swishing a jumper, or hitting two free throws, the junior guard kept pushing the lead back to eight.

The final time put away the Sea Kings as Hembarsky finished with 11 points and Sage Hill went on to win, 48-34, securing that the team would start the New Year on a win streak.

Just one game, but Silverman will take it as the Lightning (7-5) have the next few days off before returning to action Wednesday.

“This is a tough team. We played them tough,” he said. “We knew they were going to come back strong in the beginning of the second half.”

The Sea Kings clawed their way back, forgetting about the first half in which they shot 23%, committed 13 turnovers and allowed 12 offensive rebounds.

For sure the setbacks appeared to doom CdM again. The Sea Kings (6-10) came into the nonleague game losing six out of their last seven games. Nothing seemed to work until freshman guard Kayla Marolt gave herself up for the team.

Marolt treated screens the same way a sledgehammer does walls. She went right through them, so hard that the Sage Hill players setting them began to move, trying to avoid the brunt of the collision.

The referee called a moving screen on a Sage Hill player with two minutes left in the third. While Marolt needed no lift to rise from the floor, her team did. The Sea Kings scored the next five points, cutting the deficit, 31-26.

“[Marolt’s] fun to watch,” CdM Coach Mark Decker said. “She’s at a different speed than everybody else.”

But as the two teams began turning the ball over at a higher rate than turnover at a fast-food burger joint, Hembarsky ended the mess. With 28 seconds left in the third, she banked in a three-pointer to give Sage an eight-point advantage.

The three-pointer was the game’s first and it sparked Sage Hill. Hannah Jeffrey scored the first two field goals in the fourth quarter, giving her 10 points in the game. The way the 5-foot-11 Jeffrey hurt CdM earlier by grabbing offensive rebounds, she did so again.

Off a second straight offensive rebound, Jeffrey scored inside the paint. Jeffrey finished with 10 rebounds, making her one of two Sage Hill forwards recording double-doubles. The other was 5-11 Tierney Danner, who scored 10 of her game-high 12 points in the first half. The smaller Sea Kings were able to shut her down in scoring in the second half by swarming her, but she managed to kill them on the boards.

Nine of her 16 rebounds came on the offensive end, creating second-chance opportunities.

“We gave them too many easy baskets. That’s hard for us to overcome,” Decker said. “We can’t give up 48 points to them. We didn’t play great. We played hard, but not great.”

Marolt tried to make up for the rest of the team’s sporadic play. She hit a three-pointer and a jumper got CdM within, 40-34, with 4:12 left in the fourth.

But there was Hembarsky extending the lead again for Sage Hill. She knocked down two free throws late to send Sage Hill’s neighbor home fuming.

“I think we really could’ve taken this game,” said Marolt, who led CdM with eight points. “We really wanted this one.”

Nonleague

Sage Hill 48, Corona del Mar 34

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM – Marolt 8, Rhyme 7, Nadal 6, Stern 5, Brockett 4, Bergsma 2, Moheimani 2.

3-pt. goals – Marolt 1.

Fouled out – Bergsma.

SH – Danner 12, Hembarsky 11, Jeffrey 10, Garrison 9, McKeon 6.

3-pt. goals – Hembarsky.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.