Fast start helps Edison girls’ basketball hold on against Aliso Niguel

By Andrew TurnerStaff Writer

Feb. 3, 2018 6:30 PM PT

Down the stretch, Edison High’s girls’ basketball team has been putting itself to the test.

The Chargers battled for first place in the Sunset League in a game at Los Alamitos on Tuesday night. In that contest, Edison struggled mightily on the offensive end, managing just two points as a team through the midway point of the second quarter.

A quicker start was needed, and a lesson learned helped the Chargers change their fortunes against another one of the best teams in Orange County.

Senior center Ashley Niemand had a game-high 23 points with nine rebounds, and host Edison held on to defeat Aliso Niguel 58-51 in a nonleague game on Saturday afternoon.

Senior power forward Finley Garnett added 18 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. Senior shooting guard Gabby Samiy had four points and nine rebounds, and senior guard Hope Nguyen had six points and five rebounds.

“We had a lot of energy in this game,” Garnett said. “We came out with energy. We finished with energy.”

Edison (14-10) stretched an early lead to 28-13 on a three-pointer by Irene Ontiveros with 2:25 remaining in the second quarter. The Chargers went into halftime with a 28-19 lead.

A 13-4 run allowed Edison to take its biggest lead of the game, a 46-30 advantage, when Garnett converted off an offensive rebound with 1:30 to go in the third quarter.

The Chargers, however, struggled to close out quarters. Aliso Niguel’s full-court press led to a flood of layups in the final nine minutes. The Wolverines closed out the third quarter on a 7-0 run, fueled by a pair of steals and layups by Abby Miller.

Aliso Niguel (15-7) continued to close the gap, extending the run to 14-0 when a three-pointer by Sarah Matossian clipped Edison’s lead to 46-44 with seven minutes left.

Crucial to Edison’s cause was the free-throw shooting of Garnett in the fourth quarter. She went seven-for-eight in the final period.

The Wolverines twice cut the Edison lead to a single point. Following the second occasion, Aliso Niguel was set to inbound the ball under the Edison basket, but the Chargers forced a turnover via a five-second violation with 44.2 seconds remaining.

Edison promptly turned over the ball again, but Garnett saved the Chargers by taking a charge against Matossian.

“I think we freaked out under the pressure, and it took us to fight back,” Niemand said. “We needed to keep our composure during the whole time, and I think there were a few minutes where we forgot that, but then we came back.

“I think we were fortunate that a lot of things went our way in the end.”

Edison plays at Fountain Valley on Monday, before hosting Huntington Beach on Wednesday in a game with playoff seeding implications for the Sunset League. That has the Chargers thinking about a possible home game for the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoffs.

“It was nice to be able to pull it out,” Chargers coach Sara Brown said of holding on against Aliso Niguel. “Maybe it was ugly, but it was nice to be able to hopefully learn from that going forward. I’d rather it be ugly and win than it be ugly and lose.

“It’s definitely going to be tough to close it out, but I think these girls have been battle-tested in many ways.”

Edison 58, Aliso Niguel 51

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Aliso Niguel 10 – 9 – 18 – 14 — 51

Edison 18 – 10 – 18 – 12 — 58

AN – Brauer 19, Matossian 11, Ab. Miller 8, Referente 8, Swanson 5.

3-pt. goals – Matossian 2, Brauer 2.

Fouled out – Matossian.

Technicals – None.

E – Niemand 23, Garnett 18, Nguyen 6, Ontiveros 5, Samiy 4, Johnson 2.

3-pt. goals – Samiy 1, Nguyen 1, Garnett 1, Ontiveros 1.

Fouled out – None.