Titans win this clash

Bryce Alderton

Things slowed a bit after a furious start, but not to the advantage

of the Corona del Mar High girls basketball team. Visiting San Marino

(12-13) blitzed to an 18-13 lead after one period, largely on the

shoulders of Melody Cheung’s 14 points in the quarter, and staved off

the Sea Kings, 42-35, in a first-round CIF Division III-A Playoff

game Thursday night at CdM High.

Cheung hit four of her game-high five three-pointers in the

opening quarter and finished with a game-high 24 points to put the

Titans, who finished third in the Rio Hondo League into the second

round.

“We didn’t play defense that first quarter,” said first-year CdM

Coach James Barkalow. “Then we had good defense the second quarter

and the offense fell apart.”

CdM (12-13) managed only six second-quarter points, but held the

Titans to just five, in a period marred by 10 turnovers between both

teams as getting open looks became more difficult. CdM had to contend

with a full-court press throughout the game and broke it for the most

part, before San Marino’s defense clamped down in the post.

CdM, who tied for second place in the Pacific Coast League, but

was listed as the No. 3 team for CIF, made its first playoff

appearance since in two years.

“This is a typical game for us,” said San Marino Coach Pat Gillan.

“We are not a great offensive team. We’ve relied on Melody all year

long and have been winning games with our defense, which did a

tremendous job.”

San Marino forced 11 steals that contributed to 16 CdM turnovers,

five in the final quarter, which saw the teams combine for just 13

points. CdM senior Madison Otterbein displayed some tough defense of

her own, swatting away two shots in the fourth quarter to keep the

Sea Kings in the game they led only three times, the last coming at,

6-5, with 5:56 to go in the first quarter. Otterbein finished with

eight points and five rebounds on 3-of-7 shooting.

As a team, CdM shot 15 for 40 from the field (37.5%), while San

Marino converted 15 of 50 attempts (30%). But the Titans hit on 7 of

17 three-pointers compared to only 1 of 8 for the Sea Kings.

Starting guard Kelliann Klein knocked down CdM’s only three

pointer on an assist from Jackie McCoy, who tallied a team-high 12

points to go with 10 rebounds, two blocks and two assists, to cut the

Titan lead to 40-33 with four minutes and 37 seconds to go in the

game. McCoy would cut the lead to five with a pull-up 7-foot jumper

with 1:45 left and CdM had a chance to trim the lead further

following a timeout. But a missed layup off a pick and roll resulted

in one of Kathryn Skorpil’s six rebounds and CdM was forced to foul

to stop the clock.

Execution, or lack of it, was CdM’s culprit, according to

Barkalow.

“We wanted to slow it down unless we had an open layup and not try

to run with them,” Barkalow said. “We did that and didn’t force

anything. We had opportunities to score but didn’t take advantage of

them. But I can’t ask for anything more as a first-year coach.”

Thursday’s game was the final for seniors Otterbein, McCoy, Klein and

Aryn Dimas.

“I’ve played with Kelliann for 10 years so to not play with her

anymore will be strange,” Otterbein said. “We had a bad offensive

night, but did well on defense. We had a good year, a lot of fun.”

Klein scored seven of her 11 points in the second half and added

eight rebounds and two assists, while Colleen Marks provided a

defensive spark, often guarding point guard Deborah Loh, who finished

2 for 11 from the field for six points. Marks tallied four points,

had two rebounds and one steal. Sarah Stern and Aryn Dimas both had

an assist and starter Kate Heeschen grabbed two rebounds to go with

an assist.