Southern Section Girls’ 2-A : San Luis Obispo’s Coach Retires With a Title

San Luis Obispo’s Harry Bottorff ended his 25-year coaching career on a positive note Friday night as his Tigers won the Southern Section girls’ 2-A championship, beating La Quinta, 47-45, at the Long Beach Arena. Tiger forward Courtney Bourn hit an 18-foot jumper with 46 seconds remaining, and it turned out to be the winning basket.

Moments before, Bourn had missed a similar shot, but she came through when it counted.

“I forced the first shot,” she said. “For the second I was wide open, and I knew I had to put it up.”

Bourn finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

Bottorff had confidence in Bourn. “I felt she could win it for us because they (the Aztecs) were going to neutralize our two best players and leave Bourn open,” he said.

He was referring to Tiger center Kim Crawford and guard Audrey Rocha. They finished with 14 and 18 points, respectively.

As for Crawford, who also had 14 rebounds and four blocked shots, Bottorff doesn’t think there’s a better 2-A player in the state.

The game was tied at the half and was pretty evenly played throughout.

The Aztecs took a three-point lead with 3:10 remaining but were unable to hold it as they fouled Crawford with 1:47 left. Crawford turned it into a three-point play to tie the score at 40 apiece.

Aztec forward Melissa Fejdasz then made a valiant effort, scoring seven of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, five in the last three minutes. She led the Aztecs with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

The Tigers led by one, then Bourn hit her jumper to increase the lead to three.

With 27 seconds left, the Aztecs, down by one, failed to commit a foul on the Tigers. Down by two with three seconds left, the Aztecs called a timeout and set up a play, but they were unable to get the ball downcourt and missed a half-court desperation shot.