3-A Girls : Fallbrook Falls to Pointers

The strength of the Point Loma girls basketball team is the inside play of its towering front line.

Terri Mann (6-1), Jessica Benton (6-4) and Michelle Collum (5-11) had an overwhelming height advantage over the Fallbrook front in the 3-A title game on Wednesday.

But it was the play of 5-2 junior guard Chanelle McCoy, who scored 33 points, that sparked top-rated Point Loma (25-0) to an 86-52 win over Fallbrook in the San Diego 3-A championship game at the San Diego Sports Arena.

McCoy took control of the game in the second quarter when she scored 11 of Point Loma’s next 15 points to help the Pointers turn a 21-15 lead into a 36-25 margin. Mann, the county’s second leading scorer this season with a 25.1 points-per-game average, was held to four points in the first half.

“If they closed down on Terri,” said McCoy, in her first season at Point Loma after transferring from Lincoln. “and I got open, I was supposed to shoot and shoot.”

But Mann found openings in the Fallbrook defense to score 27 points in the second half to finish with 31. She also dominated inside, grabbing 27 rebounds to set a San Diego Section record for most rebounds in a season with 487.

Mann, a sophomore, has been a part of a Pointer team that is 54-0 over the last two seasons, including a California state Division II basketball championship last season. Trepanier had nothing but praise for his young star.

“She could play for any major college in the country,” Trepanier said. “Right now.”

Fallbrook (20-5) was led by forward Nicole Jann, who scored 23 points despite playing most of the game in foul trouble. Jann, the Palomar League Player of the Year, received four first half fouls trying to defense the big Point Loma front line.

This game was the last for Buck White as Fallbrook’s head coach. White, who guided the Warriors to the title game five times (winning twice) in his 11 years as coach, will become head coach of the Mira Costa Junior College women’s basketball team next season.