Pleasant Valley May Make Things Ugly for El Camino

To win the Division II state girls basketball championship, all El Camino High School has to do is beat Pleasant Valley of Chico Saturday afternoon in the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Arena.

That doesn’t figure to be a simple task, even for the Wildcats, who have a 27-1 record this season. Pleasant Valley, ranked No. 2 in the state and eighth in the nation, has yet to lose in 27 games. The Vikings average 79 points a game and give up a mere 31. They use a full-court press to pummel their opposition.

“We know what they’re capable of doing,” said El Camino guard Sharon Turner, San Diego County’s leading scorer. “They have good people who can board, good size and good outside shooting.

“Basically, we’re very similar teams. They score as many points as we do and hold the other team to as few points as we do.”

Forward Kari Christiansen is the Vikings’ best offensive player, and she does everything else pretty well, too. She averages 18 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 assists a game. Tracy McClandliss and Tracy Anderson are two more Pleasant Valley players of note. Anderson, the team’s best defender, will have the the job of trying to hold Turner down. And all Turner has done is averaged 32.4 points, 5 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 4 steals this season.

But the Wildcats didn’t get this far in the state playoffs with just one talented player. Renee Phillips, Turner’s backcourt partner, is averaging 9 points and 6.3 assists. Up front, El Camino is loaded with center Vicki Evans (16.6 points, 11 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots) and forwards Sheri Williamson (16 points and 7 rebounds) and Pat Poore (10 points and 6 rebounds).

Because of Pleasant Valley’s relentless press, El Camino will have to be sure to take care of the ball. Wildcat Coach Ray Johnson has been using pressing defenses in practices all week to help his team prepare for what it will face at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“If we take our time and look for our passes instead of running up the court like chickens with their heads cut off, we’ll do well,” Turner said. “If we get past the press, we’ll get a lot of easy baskets.”

El Camino almost didn’t get by Washington Union of Fresno last week. The Wildcats were up by 23 at one point, but had to hold on for a 64-58 win.

“We played well in the second and third quarters,” Johnson said. “In the first and fourth quarters, we were on the airplane. We got away from what we wanted to do. We can’t do that against a team of this caliber.”

Evans fouled out in the third quarter against Washington Union, one of the reasons why El Camino had some problems. The Wildcats will definitely need her the entire game against the Vikings.

“Coach said, ‘You’d better not do that this Saturday,’ ” Evans said. “He told me to watch my fouls.”

El Camino will be on the lookout for Christiansen and the rest of the Vikings, but not fearful of them.

“We haven’t been tested yet,” Johnson said. “It’ll be nice to be underdogs for a change. Maybe it’ll make us work harder and battle when we know people are going after us.”