No crown for Breakers

The outcome of the 2008 Orange Coast League girls’ basketball championship laid in the balance Tuesday night at Dugger Gym.

The Laguna Beach Breakers needed a win over visiting Costa Mesa to share the league crown with the Mustangs.

But Costa Mesa, which was upset at home by the Breakers on Jan. 25, has the title all to itself.

The Mustangs took an early 8-0 lead and Laguna was never able to fully recover and went on to suffer a 62-51 defeat.

A victory would have given Laguna a share of the league lead with Costa Mesa with one game to play.

Following that slow start, Laguna rallied to within 16-13 at the end of the first quarter.

Yet the Breakers couldn’t get untracked in the second quarter where they were outscored by the Mustangs, 22-8, and went into the locker room at the half trailing, 37-21.

The Breakers continued to battle and went on to outscore the Mustangs in both the third and fourth quarters but couldn’t complete yet another comeback which, in the past few weeks, has become their trademark.

“The girls played hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them and the effort they gave both last night and all year long,” first-year Laguna Coach Jon Hendrickson said.

The Breakers took a key hit in the third quarter when Tess Grogan fouled out with three minutes to play in quarter.

“Which severely limited us but Katie Daff did a great job off the bench,” Hendrickson said.

Emily LaRose led Laguna in scoring with 17 points. Lauren Kelly scored 10, Emily Writer nine, Grogan seven, Sam Garner six and Daff had two points.

Laguna concluded league and regular season play Thursday at Estancia. The score wasn’t available at press time.

A week ago, Laguna shared first place with Costa Mesa after sweeping the Mustangs, Calvary Chapel and Estancia in the second-round of league play. They fell from the top spot after dropping a 63-61 overtime decision at Calvary Chapel on Feb. 1.

The Breakers, who were down seven points with two minutes to play in regulation before rallying to tie the score and send the game into overtime, was outscored 9-7 in overtime.

Grogan and LaRose, two key Laguna players, fouled out of the contest.

Grogan had scored 21 points and LaRose nine.

Writer led Laguna with 16 points, Kelly had 11 points and Garner added four points.