Oilers’ fantastic season ended by Monarchs
SANTA ANA – Rest well, Huntington Beach High girls’ basketball.
A prolonged postseason, the longest of their careers, came to an end against the marquee program of Mater Dei on Saturday night.
Battered and bruised, the Oilers fought tooth and nail with the Monarchs for a half, but Mater Dei pulled away with a surge coming out of the locker room.
Duke signee Jayda Adams connected on a trio of 3-pointers in the third quarter, and the second-seeded Monarchs defeated the Oilers, 65-46, in a CIF State Southern California Regionals quarterfinal at Mater Dei High.
“The first half, they played an amazing game,” Oilers assistant coach Ashleigh Wood said. “They fought just how we asked them to and how we expected them to.
“Those shots, that’s what killed us. We just couldn’t get back from it.”
Mater Dei (22-8) went on a 17-1 run from the 6:08 mark of the third quarter. A mid-range buzzer-beater by Kendyll Toomey gave the Monarchs a 52-30 lead with 1:38 left in the period.
All things considered, no one would blame the Oilers (24-10) if they felt a little tired, even a lot. For Huntington Beach, this was a remarkable run, reaching this stage for the first time since 2012.
Add to that the fact that the Monarchs ran a relentless full-court press for most of the game, and the culmination of the season was weighing down on them.
“We were definitely tired,” senior forward April Soedel said. “I know that all of us were really worn out and injured.
“Since Mater Dei presses the entire game, that definitely wore us down. We were all talking about it in the locker room. It’s been a long season, and I know a lot of us are really worn out.”
The Oilers experienced great difficulty in breaking the full-court press of Mater Dei. They managed to hang around in the first half, as Huntington Beach trailed, 28-24, at halftime.
Huntington Beach could thank Concordia-bound forward Frankie Wade-Sanchez for most of the production. She willed her way to 15 of her game-high 31 points before the break.
Soedel was a surprise source of scoring, too. She made both 3-pointers she attempted in the first half.
“Coach Russ (McClurg) said, ‘Go for it. If you have a shot, shoot the shot. I’m not going to tell you to shoot it. You just shoot it,’” Soedel said.
“That’s why I shot it and made two threes. I was just going to take it, no matter whether I miss it really bad or not. That’s how everyone was playing.”
Kaylyn Nakaji had six points, and Xolani Hodel had 11 rebounds and two steals for the Oilers.
Mater Dei’s attack was balanced, but when the Monarchs needed a key basket, they looked for San Jose State commit Cydni Lewis. The 6-foot-1 center had 24 points and seven rebounds.
The senior was particularly demonstrative following a chase-down block against Rachel Harris, staring down the Oilers forward after the play.
Elsewhere, the Monarchs got 16 points from Nicole Freeman, while Toomey scored 10 points with six rebounds and five assists.
Wood was the acting coach for the Oilers on Saturday night. McClurg, the head coach, was hospitalized with kidney stones.
McClurg sent a video commending the team on the honor they have brought the school and their families this season. The Oilers watched it prior to the game.
“It’s a bummer because it’s our last senior game, and I really wish that he was able to coach me and the rest of the seniors in our last game,” Wade-Sanchez said of McClurg. “That just gave us even more motivation to go out and play harder than we had originally planned and do what we could for him.
“I think we did a pretty good job of that, regardless of the score.”
CIF State SoCal Division II Regionals Quarterfinals
Mater Dei 65, Huntington Beach 46
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Huntington Beach – 14 - 10 - 11 - 11 – 46
Mater Dei – 16 - 12 - 26 - 11 – 65
HB – Wade-Sanchez 31, Soedel 8, Nakaji 6, Hodel 1.
3-pt. goals – Wade-Sanchez 2, Soedel 2, Nakaji 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
MD – Lewis 24, Freeman 16, Adams 12, Toomey 10, Pugh 2, Fitzgerald 1.
3-pt. goals – Adams 3, Freeman 1.
Fouled out – Freeman.
Technicals – None.