Last-second shot denies title hopes

The final night of the Sunset League girls’ basketball season went down to the final second on Feb. 8, with a championship resting on the outcome.

The last shot in a back-and-forth game between Esperanza and host Edison went to the visitors. When it went through the net, the Aztecs had an outright championship.

Needing a victory in order to earn a share of the Sunset crown, Edison appeared poised to send the game into overtime when sophomore Kelly Peterson followed her own miss to score the tying basket. But the Chargers’ championship plans were dealt a final blow when Esperanza’s Sydney Hughes scored on a floater in the lane with less than a second to play, giving the ecstatic Aztecs a 39-37 victory and regular-season sweep of the Chargers.

Peterson finished with nine points and junior center Victoria Lokhorst led Edison with 13 points.

“One of our goals was to be able to play for a league championship and we had that opportunity, but just couldn’t finish,” said Edison Coach Cory Kelly, whose Chargers led by as many as nine points in the first half.

“Our motto is to just get better each day. We watched film from that game and at practice began working on correcting the mistakes we made. Our goal now is to be ready for CIF.”

Marina went 2-0 in the final week of the regular season, capped by a 38-35 home win against Fountain Valley to nail down third place in the Sunset League.

Junior forward Emily Boelsems hit a three-point shot to win the game and finished with eight points. The Vikings were paced by sophomore forward Rita Sitivi, the game’s high scorer with 22 points.

Huntington Beach had entered the final week of Sea View League play with possession of no worse than a share of the league crown, and that’s what the Oilers ended up with following road losses at Woodbridge and Foothill. Huntington ended regular season play with its worst loss of the season, a 57-37 setback at Foothill that left both the Oilers and Knights tied for first place. Foothill went on to win a coin flip after the game and has the league’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

Junior center Jasmine Erving scored 10 points to lead Huntington.

Ocean View earned a tie with Orange for the Golden West League championship by drubbing visiting Santa Ana, 60-32, in the regular-season finale for both teams. Senior center D.J. Butler netted 20 points to lead all scorers and junior forward Clarissa Holz had 13 points for the Seahawks.

In boys’ basketball

Ocean View hammered host Orange, 62-28, to wrap up another Golden West League championship. Junior guard Takeshi Clifford scored 13 points to lead 15 Seahawks in the scoring column.

Edison ended regular-season play with a 65-57 triumph at Esperanza that gave the Chargers second place in the Sunset League. Three Chargers scored in double figures with Mike Hoida, Kyle Boswell and Corey Ferraro scoring 19, 15 and 12 points, respectively.

Marina will head into the playoffs coming off a 75-67 loss at Fountain Valley. Senior forward Troy Lewis hit six three-point baskets and finished with a game-high 20 points.

Marina hit 16 three-point baskets to increase their prep national single-season record to 412.

Huntington broke a three-game losing streak in Sea View League play with a 49-40 win against Foothill. Junior guards Trevor Carroll and Nicholas Becker scored 18 and 12 points, respectively. Junior guard Randy Guite led Huntington in rebounds (nine), steals (eight) and assists and senior forward Stipe Lasic also pulled down seven rebounds.