OCC basketball team beats the odds

Oh that championship season.

And the memories of that season, an improbable run to the state

title, will be forever fixed in the minds of the young players of the

Orange Coast College women’s basketball team.

Because not only did they win it all, but they made history by

doing it.

Coming in as the No. 4 seed in the state regional tournament, the

Pirates first knocked off opponents Cerritos and Compton colleges

before traveling to beat the No. 1 seed in the South, Ventura.

After that, it was time to play the state title against Contra

Costa, a team that had beaten the Pirates by six points in an earlier

December tournament.

But the Pirates did not let history stop them, they decided to

rewrite it as they defeated the No. 1 seed from the north 69-61 to

capture the first state women’s basketball championship for the

college.

And much like the Costa Mesa High School girl’s soccer team, which

also made history this year, the OCC Pirates did it all through team

work.

“We don’t have a tremendous athletic team, but we have good kids

who never complain and never show an attitude and it makes me feel

good to win with a team like that,” said coach Mike Thornton, who is

in his 14th year with the program. Thornton assistant is Gregg

Savage.

So with that, we tip our hat, not so much to the awesome

individual efforts that were a hallmark of this championship season,

but to a team that played together and stayed together to win it all.

Without further ado, we give you the state champion Pirates: Alisa

Carrillo, Jessica Estrada, Lindsey Galasso, Laura Garnica, Nancy

Hatsushi, Celeste Haueter, Leigh Marshall, Liz Mendoza, Lauren

Murray, Amy Shaw, Candice Quiroz and Kirsten Von Tungeln.

Congratulations to you all.