Girls’ basketball: Brea easily handles Foothill, and it ain’t dodgeball

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Brea Olinda, maligned for not playing the top Orange County teams this season, just beat Foothill, 48-31. The Ladycats -- No. 6 in The Times’ ranking -- got 13 points from Kelsey Harris and 10 from Kendall Rodriguez, who scored all her points in the second half to put away No. 19 Foothill.

‘We’ve gotten a lot of [flak] for it,’ Harris said. ‘We’re just trying to get better.’

So, will that answer the naysayers?

‘Yeah, they’re the best team in Orange County,’ Foothill Coach Bill Seibert said. ‘We’ve played Edison, San Clemente, Santa Margarita.... We’ve played the best teams. And they’re definitely the best team. The teams they’re playing are from outside the county, but it’s not like they’re dodging people. People that know basketball know they’re playing good teams.’

In the works for Brea is a nonleague game next season against Middleburg (Va.) Notre Dame Academy three nights before the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix. ND spent a week at No. 1 in the nation this season before losing to Long Beach Poly.

‘They want to play us in a one-game special,’ Brea Coach Jeff Sink said. ‘It’s in the works. I don’t know if it’s going to happen. They want some financial help, so it will depend on how much fund raising we can do.

‘Next year we’ll play more Orange County teams. I’d like to play Santa Margarita and Mater Dei. But we’ll continue to travel, and that will probably preclude us from playing in the Orange County Championships.’

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.ladycatbasketball.com