Cypress pressure forces OCC to crack

COSTA MESA — Visiting Cypress College started a lineup that averaged 5-foot-6 Tuesday night. But it was host Orange Coast that wound up being short of some vital components in the Chargers’ 70-52 Orange Empire Conference triumph that allowed them to break a second-place tie with the Pirates.

Problem No. 1 was the Pirates, as Coach Mike Thornton has freely admitted all season, lack of a take-charge point guard who could slice through an opponents’ full-court press just as Rachael Maulit did the last two seasons.

Problem No. 2, was summed up by Thornton after his team committed a season-high 34 turnovers.

“You know, we needed about 22 timeouts,” Thornton said. “Unfortunately, we only had five.”

Orange Coast (19-9, 6-3 in conference) now needs one win in three remaining games, Thornton said, to avoid being only the second team not to qualify for the Southern California Regional playoffs during his 20 seasons at the helm.

OCC plays host to conference-leading Fullerton Friday, then closes the regular season at Riverside (Wednesday) and at Santa Ana (Feb. 20).

“We’ve been to the playoffs 18 of my 19 years at Coast and, to my knowledge only Cerritos and Ventura been that many times,” Thornton said.

The only time OCC failed to advance to the postseason during Thornton’s tenure was his second season in 1990-91.

“That year we had four starters back from a team that won 26 games the previous year,” Thornton said. “But we didn’t have a point guard. That shows how much a point guard means.”

Without a proficient ball-handler, OCC lacked the means to counter Cypress’ athletic and aggressive 1-2-2 press.

“That’s what we do,” Cypress Coach Margaret Mohr said of the full-court fury unleashed upon OCC, which made the majority of its turnovers before it was able to cross midcourt. Mohr whose Chargers improved to 19-9, 7-2, said her team forced 54 turnovers in a game earlier this season.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever had that many turnovers,” Thornton said. “It has been a long time, I know that.

“[The Chargers] played us the way we felt like a lot of teams were going to play us all year long and very few teams have. That’s why we’ve gotten some wins against some good teams that didn’t come out and pressure us like that.

“Obviously, we don’t have a true point guard. Last year we worked on press break once all season, I think, because [Maulit, now an assistant coach] would just go right through it and nobody would press us. Cypress tried [to press] last year and we were up by 20 at halftime both games.

“[The Chargers] played us the way you need to play us, but that’s because they’ve played that way all season long. They play everybody that way.”

OCC seized an 8-0 lead, keyed by a pair of three-pointers by sophomore Simone Ibbotson. But Cypress countered with a 14-0 run.

Ibbotson, who finished with 22 points, netted her fourth and final three-pointer to pull OCC even, 19-19, with 9:15 left in the first half.

But an 8-0 surge by the visitors put them ahead to stay.

Cypress led by as many as 24.

OCC sophomore Casey Gomez had eight points and a team-high four rebounds, but played only 23 minutes, due to foul trouble.

Orange Empire Conference

Cypress 70, Orange Coast 52

Cyp – Sylvis 5, Starkey 2, O’Neal 17, Norris 23, Salemi 12, Reeves 5, Bracamontes 4, Martin 2.

3-pt. goals – Salemi 3, Norris 1, Sylvis 1, O’Neal 1.

Fouled out – None.

OCC – Ibbotson 22, Murray 0, Lujan 2, Gomez 8, Simmons 0, Bueno 6, Anderson 6, Cargill 5, Lewis 2, Mahi 1.

3-pt. goals – Ibbotson 4, Bueno 2, Gomez 1.

Fouled out – None.

Halftime – Cyp, 35-27.