Oilers complete improbable week in Sunset play

Mike Sciacca, Independent

This was a big -- no, make that huge -- week for the Huntington

Beach High girls basketball team, a team looking to make a late run in

the race for a coveted spot in the upcoming CIF Southern Section

playoffs.

The Oilers have made their statement.

All but out of gas in the final minutes of regulation play against

visiting Marina Thursday, Huntington Beach managed to take the Vikings to

overtime, where they finally emerged with a 51-43 Sunset League victory.

It was the second come-from-behind win at home in three nights for the

Oilers (13-10), who used Michelle Ito’s put back shot at the buzzer

Tuesday to stun Esperanza, 50-49. The two wins also gave Huntington Beach

sole possession of third place, a spot it had shared with Marina entering

Thursday’s game, at 5-3.

“It was a huge week, is right -- to say the least,” Huntington Beach

Coach Bill Thomson said. “It’s games like these past two why someone gets

into coaching. You’re lucky, as a coach, to be involved with one

thrilling win in a season, but to have two in the same week, well that’s

pretty incredible.”

It was a poorly played game from the start, with both teams shooting

horrendously from the field. If they weren’t missing shots, they seemed

to turn the ball over.

“Tonight, we really were struggling from the very beginning, but the

girls just hung tough,” Thomson said. “We were down by five (points) with

just under four minutes to play, and for how badly we were shooting, I

thought, at that point, that we were through. But, the girls pulled

through.”

Fittingly that such a poorly played game would need an overtime session

to determine the outcome.

Huntington Beach never trailed in the overtime period. Megan Molden’s

rebound and follow shot off a Sanders miss in the opening seconds gave

the Oilers a 45-43 lead.

Marina never had a chance, missing all eight of its shots from the floor

in overtime.

With Amy Sanders scoring Huntington Beach’s first 11 points of the final

quarter, the Oilers were able to stay within striking distance of the

Vikings (16-8, 4-4), who had built a 38-33 lead on Jun Okazoe’s 12-foot

jumper with 3:58 to play.

Marina still led, 40-39, and had possession with two minutes to play,

when Miranda Emde was called for a travel. The Oilers took advantage of

the mistake as Sanders hit a bank shot eight seconds later to give

Huntington Beach a 41-40 edge -- its first lead since leading 4-2.

The Oilers extended their lead to 43-40 on two Christine Kimoto free

throws with 1:23 left in regulation. But Marina managed to pull to within

a point on Nikki Lees lay in, and got the ball back with 21 seconds when

Lee pulled down a rebound and was fouled by Sanders.

The Vikings, however, were not yet in the bonus, so they took the ball

out of bounds under the Huntington Beach basket. Working for the last

shot, Lee’s jumper from just inside the three-point line glanced off the

front iron, but Cara Congelliere was there for the rebound, and she was

fouled by Kimoto with seven-tenths of a second on the clock.

Congelliere’s first of two foul shots hit the front of the rim but

bounced away, but her second one hit nothing but net to tie the score at

43-43, and send it into overtime.

Sanders topped all scorers with 26 points, half of them coming in the

fourth quarter. Kimoto also scored in double figures for the Oilers with

13 points.

Lee scored 12 points and Emde finished with 11 for Marina.

Huntington Beach steps out of Sunset League play Saturday to travel to

Arroyo for a 7 p.m. nonleague encounter. The Oilers resume league play

Tuesday (7:30 p.m.) at Los Alamitos.

Marina travels to Esperanza Tuesday (7 p.m.) for another key league

showdown.