Women’s basketball: OCC women aim to improve

Steve Virgen

No more No. 2 ranking in the state. No more superstar athletes.

But, the Orange Coast College women’s basketball team views the 2000-01

season as a chance to get better in each game and hopefully surprise some

people.

Four games into the season, the Pirates have improved, mostly in their

60-55 victory over El Camino Friday. With three key returners and five

freshmen, the Pirates (2-2) played their best game of the season against

El Camino.

Those key returners are guards Karyn Fierst, Megan Masuda and forward

Kristen Urban, a product of Newport Harbor High.

“Karyn Fierst has got to be one of our go-to players,” OCC Coach Mike

Thornton said. “We have to get 13-20 points a game from her.”

Thornton also said the Pirates will have to decrease their turnovers

this season in order to have a chance to win.

“We don’t have a lot of room for error. We’re not the kind of team

that can go out and make a lot of mistakes and still win. For us to beat

decent teams, we have to make far fewer mistakes than we’re making right

now and we have to take advantage of scoring opportunities. We’re just

going to have to scrap all season long. It’s going to be a struggle.

We’re not going to out-athletic anyone. We have to outwork them and play

smart.”

The scrappy play will most likely come from sophomore forward Nadia

Mojica, whom Thornton deemed the team’s best rebounder.

“She’s only 5-foot-9, but she’s really aggressive,” Thornton said.

“Her quickness makes it difficult to block her out.”

The Pirates will look to refrain from inconsistent outside shooting

and rely on their defense to win games. OCC’s defense continues to

improve.

“Defensively, I’ve been pretty satisfied,” Thornton said. “For the

most part, that has been our strong point. We mix up our zone and our

man. We didn’t press (against El Camino) as much as we usually do.”

OCC’s 25-, 26- and 27-win seasons the last three years, respectively,

could be tough to approach this season, Thornton said. The Pirates were

27-6 last year. But, he believes the team will improve before the

conference season begins.

“We’ve been ranked No. 2 in the state for a good period of that time

(three years),” he said. “But, we’re not at that level now. We just want

to be the best team that we can be by the end of the season and that’s

our goal.”

ORANGE COAST COLLEGE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

11 Setsu Takemoto 5-5 Fr. G

13 Karyn Fierst 5-6 So. G

12 Megan Masuda 5-6 So. G

14 Janette Redmond 5-7 So. G

20 Kiersten Melville 5-10 Fr. G/F

21 Jennifer Nakano 5-5 So. G

22 Nadia Mojica 5-9 So. F

23 Cara Ducey 6-0 So. F

24 Ane Nielsen 5-6 Fr. G

30 Natalie Estrada 5-2 Fr. G

32 Kristen Urban 5-11 So. G/F

44 Amy Wheeler 6-0 Fr. F/C