Yosemite sends Costa Mesa girls on a hike

OAKHURST — If Thursday night’s game was a half-court showdown, the Costa Mesa High girls’ basketball team still might be in the CIF state playoffs.

As it is, teams still have to bring the ball up the court, and things didn’t work out as well as the visiting Mustangs would’ve liked in a 72-41 loss to Yosemite in a quarterfinal of the Southern California Division III regional.

“Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Costa Mesa’s Jennifer Courtney said.

But the Mustangs senior wasn’t displeased about her team’s effort. To the contrary. She was extremely pleased with that. The key phase of the game she lamented was ball possession.

“We had like 100 turnovers,” she said. “That’s ridiculous.”

The 31-point loss was nothing similar to the 27-point defeat Costa Mesa suffered against St. Mary’s Academy of Inglewood in the Southern Section Division IV-AA championship last week at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach.

St. Mary’s went on a 17-0 run to break out to a 19-2 lead after one quarter. Thursday against Yosemite (22-7), Costa Mesa hung around well into the third.

The Badgers held a 37-27 lead at halftime, and the 10-point margin would fluctuate between eight and 12 points for the next 4 1/2 minutes.

After Yosemite guard Katie Menton missed a three-pointer, the Badgers got the offensive rebound, and Patricia O’Neill received a nice feed inside to score on a layup. The Badgers then put on their full-court press, with Menton earning a steal and getting it to Lauren Rolff for another layup. Then Rolff earned another steal and fed it up to fellow guard Jenay Herring for a third consecutive layup.

The six-point run took just 20 seconds, giving Yosemite a 51-33 advantage with 3:13 left in the third.

“We struggled all year with the press,” Mustangs coach Jim Weeks said. “That’s what the press is supposed to do, and that’s what it did in the third quarter. It took all the air out of us.”

And prepare as hard as it might, Costa Mesa didn’t have the resources to get ready for the Badgers.

“When we press, we press with small people,” Weeks said. “They press with big people. It’s hard to simulate their wingspan.”

Indeed, Yosemite’s frontcourt players pressured the player who received the inbound pass. Because of the long arms, the Mustangs had to pass up and over, and the balls became floaters that the Badgers’ ball-hawking guards would snatch out of the air.

The 18-point deficit grew to 20 on guard Kristin Slayton’s steal and layup, and Yosemite would take control from there, up 53-33 with 2:40 left in the third.

Costa Mesa (20-12) came out scrappy against the four-time Central Section champion Badgers and their Pepperdine-bound star Menton.

“We’ll just have our best defensive player play against her,” said Weeks of putting Mustangs guard Amy Gentling on Menton, who said she is used to drawing double teams. “We play man-to-man defense.”

Menton did score half of her team’s points, but the 26 on this night came against a dogged effort from Gentling.

“She definitely made it tough for me to get open. She was like glue,” said Menton, who now has 2,209 points in her prep career.

Entering the Central Section tournament, Menton had averaged 23.7 points per game, but those came in just 11 minutes of action per game. Menton played nearly every minute against the Mustangs, only coming out two or three times for about a minute’s break until finally coming out of the game with 1:28 remaining.

“She’s a great shooter,” Gentling said. “She had a little advantage — taller than me, and because she’s a senior and I’m a sophomore.”

But the 5-foot-9 Menton did not start out too hot against the 5-foot-4 Gentling.

Menton, who entered making 219 three-pointers, missed her first three shots from beyond the arc and didn’t score until getting three straight layups — two off her own steals — midway through the first quarter to tie the score at 8-8.

But Menton finished the first quarter shooting three for eight, and zero for four from long range. Then Menton got going in the second, hitting a trio of three-pointers to head into the half with 18 points.

“She’s good at making adjustments,” Yosemite coach Gary Blate said. “All [of her threes] did damage at the time.”

By the time Weeks took Gentling out of the game with 3:52 remaining, one look and anybody could tell Gentling — and the rest of her teammates — had given it every ounce of energy their bodies could provide.

The game was the final one for Courtney and fellow seniors Dana Ashoori, Nicki Brannon, Tatiana Caicedo, Guadalupe Garces and Ana Gutierrez.

“We won league. We were CIF runner-up,” Courtney said. “It had to end here, but we gave it all we got. I’m happy, really happy, actually. I’m still sad, but all in all it was an awesome season.”

CIF Division III

Southern California Regional

Quarterfinal

Yosemite 72,

Costa Mesa 41

Score by Quarters

Costa Mesa 16 11 6 8 — 41

Yosemite 17 20 18 17 — 72

Costa Mesa -- Figueroa 9, Brannon 7, Courtney 6, Gentling 5, Trinh 4, Malapira 3, Rosello 3, Gutierrez 2, Werdel 2.

3-pt. goals -- Gentling 1, Malapira 1, Rosello 1.

Yosemite -- Menton 26, Herring 11, Richie 8, Slayton 6, O’Neill 5, Rolff 5, Barigian 4, Dierberger 4, McMillen 3.

3-pt. goals -- Menton 4, Herring 1, McMillen 1, O’Neill 1.