Inspired Vanguard wins one for T

COSTA MESA — To see Therese Riedel grasp, then lift the championship trophy was more than moving for her former Vanguard University women’s basketball teammates and coaches.

It was also symbolic.

For, Riedel, a 6-foot-4 center who broke her neck and was paralyzed after diving into a sandbar during a Sept. 20 preseason team outing at Corona del Mar state beach, personified one of several challenges the No. 2-ranked Lions have successfully risen to on their way to Golden State Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles this season.

The Defending NAIA Division I national champions (29-3) defeated defending GSAC regular-season and tournament champion Point Loma Nazarene, 78-71, Monday at Vanguard’s gym. The win cemented the sixth GSAC crown (either regular-season, tournament or both) in the last seven seasons and was the ninth such distinction in the last 12 seasons under GSAC Coach of the Year Russ Davis.

But the presence of Riedel added significance to this title, Davis said.

Riedel, who has regained some movement in her arms, but is still in a wheelchair, zipped into the team’s pregame huddle near one free-throw line, arms held high in cheering mode. She cheered from the sideline during the game, as she has several times this season, then joined a parade of players who accepted postgame championship plaques near midcourt.

Riedel, who transferred to Vanguard from the University of Idaho and played high school basketball in San Diego, was directed by a smiling Davis to accept the roughly 18-inch championship trophy that typically is fielded by the captain.

Riedel clutched the bronze-colored player figure on the trophy with one partially closed hand, and balanced the wood-block foundation with the other hand, smiling all the while. She raised the trophy above her head to wide applause, and even a few tears.

“For two months, I watched her in a hospital bed, not be able to move anything,” Davis said of Riedel, who inspired the player’s fluorescent green warmup T-shirts on which ‘For T,’ was written across the front. “For her to be able to lift a trophy up? That’s a miracle.

“This is really special considering what we’ve gone through with Therese,” Davis said. “As a team, we had to readjust. For about two weeks there, nobody was even thinking about basketball. We were just thinking about her. Then we just kind of got together and said ‘You know what, we’re going to do this for her. That’s what she would want. She has really been an inspiration. This championship was for T.’ ”

But the No. 8-ranked visitors (24-6), who handed Vanguard its only conference loss this season, nearly completed a miracle of their own.

Down, 55-33, with 16:25 left in the game, the Sea Lions twice pulled within three, the latter with 24 seconds left.

But juniors Diana Neves (24 points, including five three-pointers), Rachel Copeland (15 points with four three balls) and sophomore Sarah Boyd (seven points and seven assists), each sank two free-throw attempts in the final 37 seconds to help the Lions prevail.

Vanguard now ventures to the NAIA Tournament, March 18-24 in Jackson, Tenn.

Senior Lauren Gregory sparkled in the last home game of her career. She made 10 of 15 field-goal tries on her way to 26 points and also collected six assists, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.

“Lauren made some big shots for us,” Davis said.

Golden State Athletic Conference

Tournament final

Vanguard 78, Point Loma Nazarene 71

PLN – Trotter 13, Zabinsky 6, Planeta 27, Franz 5, Ector 5, Hanson 7, Lee 4, Colon 4.

3-pt. goals – Planeta 2, Zabinsky 1, Trotter 1, Franz 1, Hanson 1.

VU – Gregory 26, Copeland 15, Pfohl 6, Neves 24, Boyd 7.

3-pt. goals – Neves 5, Copeland 4, Gregory 1, Boyd 1.

Halftime – VU, 44-29.