Simi Valley Girls Rally to Beat Newbury Park

For Newbury Park High girls basketball Coach Nori Parvin, there was nothing new about Saturday night’s 59-52 loss at home to defending Marmonte League champion Simi Valley.

“It was the same thing last year,” Parvin said. “It’s always under 10 points.”

Newbury Park (5-6), which lost to the Pioneers, 56-49, in the Buena tournament last month, went cold for six minutes in the second half, failing to score and blowing a lead it held from the beginning of the game.

Behind by a point with 1:34 left in the third quarter, Simi Valley (10-3) took the lead for good on two free throws by Kristie Sterbens. Before the Panthers could get back in the shooting groove, they trailed, 46-39.

“We’d get one or two shots and just couldn’t make them,” Parvin said.

Simi Valley struggled in the first half, hitting only 10 of 23 shots, but trailed by only three at intermission.

“They always play us tough here,” Simi Valley Coach Dave Murphy said. “They’ve got some of the best athletes in the league and they’re very physical.”

“We’ve played them a lot of times and it’s usually close, like in the Buena tournament,” Murphy said. “They lead early and we beat them by seven.”

It’s not unlike Simi Valley, which was unbeaten in the league last season, to come from behind to win.

“We have the tendency to start slow in a lot of games,” Murphy said. “I wish I had the answer why.”

Newbury Park’s Julia Johnson scored nine points in the first quarter to give the Panthers a 21-16 lead. Newbury Park hit 11 of 22 in the first half and made 8 of 11 free throws.

Despite fouling out in the fourth quarter, Johnson led Newbury Park with 15 points.

In the second half, Simi Valley forward Julie Arlotto began to connect from everywhere and finished with a game-high 21 points. Sterbens had 14.

“They all got hot,” Parvin said. “We have a lot of first-year players and, in a game against a team like Simi Valley where the intensity level is so high, it gets hard to keep your composure.

“Simi Valley showed its composure. They made their free throws and we didn’t.”

SIMI VALLEY--Cooper 9, Arlotto 21, Wilcox 3, Sterbens 14, Elton 10, Irwin 2.

NEWBURY PARK--Johnson 15, Jones 4, Tellefson 4, Cormier 11, Gellenbeck 12, Singer 6.