WOMEN’S BASKETBALL:Twice is not nice for OCC

COSTA MESA — The Orange Coast College women’s basketball team has had its fill of College of Canyons.

A 79-65 loss to the Cougars in the semifinal of the Coast Christmas Classic on Tuesday was the second time this year the Cougars have defeated the Pirates.

Freshman Courtney Ford scored a game-high 28 points on 11-for-20 shooting for the Pirates.

The Pirates will play Southwestern in the third-place game at 4 p.m. today at Orange Coast.

The fact Orange Coast went from losing by six to the Cougars Nov. 11 at the Mount San Antonio College Tournament to the 14-point margin Tuesday was not the type of change Pirates Coach Mike Thornton said he had in mind.

“We thought we made a lot of progress since then,” Thornton said. “This should have been a close game. When we had opportunities we didn’t finish.”

College of the Canyons has posted its two highest scoring outputs, 83 and 79, against the Pirates (11-3) this season. Orange Coast’s strength is its full-court press, with its Achilles’ heel being a strong point guard, Thornton said.

Cougars point guard Leslie Ortiz scored 24 points and dished out 12 assists.

“I don’t really want to play against that point guard anymore,” Thornton said. “We played two games against them, and we can’t handle her.”

The Orange Coast defense led by Rachael Maulit, who had a game-high six steals, stiffened against Ortiz in the second half forcing her into eight turnovers. But when Ortiz wasn’t scoring on layups, it was Facion Edwards finishing the fast break, hitting 11 of 15 shots for 25 points.

“They run transition really well,” said Devin Hundley who had 12 points. “I think we’re better defensively. We just need to play better team basketball.”

After the game Hundley said the team talked about the game’s negatives, defense; and positives, rebounding.

“We were competitive on the boards, and we kept our heads in the game,” Hundley said. “We could do better; we just have to make sure it’s a team effort and not an individual effort.”

Other than Ford, the Pirates shot a combined 13 for 51 from the field and three for 15 from three-point range.

“We didn’t play our best basketball,” Ford said. “We’re a team, and we try to work everything around the team. I think I played well. But it’s all about defense — everything is based around defense.”

The Cougars took a 23-16 lead they wouldn’t relinquish with a 8-0 run in the first half. Orange Coast had led up to that point, but three turnovers changed the momentum.

“We just couldn’t finish,” Ford said. “We just need to have more effort. Just go all out.”

The lead stretched to 17 points at 70-53 for College of the Canyons with five minutes remaining in the game. The Pirates responded with a 6-0 run but wouldn’t come any closer.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Thornton said. “We had no answer for them. I thought we were going to improve. We could be a very good team, but we are 1-3 against the very good teams. To win the conference, we need to get better. There are about five teams that could possibly win the conference title. It will be whoever gets better between now and then.”