Sunset League : Girls’ Basketball : Barons Hold On for Title, 68-67

The Fountain Valley High School girls’ basketball team didn’t score a point for the final 2 minutes and 5 seconds and still won the Sunset League championship Thursday night at Marina.

The Barons won, 68-67, but had to survive two last-minute scoring chances by Marina.

It wasn’t a particularly graceful victory, but then again the Barons were picked to finish no higher than fourth by the league’s coaches.

Fountain Valley (16-10 overall, 8-2 in league) has only one senior starter, center Melayne Green.

“It’s awesome,” said Kami Bigler, a junior guard, of winning the league championship. “Because everyone expected us to be totally bad.”

Bigler had a team-high 19 points. Stacey Hisaka added 17 points and Green 12.

Marina (20-5, 7-3) finished in a tie for second place with Huntington Beach. Guard Dee Dee Stigar scored 24 points to lead the Vikings. Center Dawn Charroin added 16.

Charroin’s turnaround jumper with less than 45 seconds remaining cut the Fountain Valley lead to one, 68-67. The Barons had led, 66-56, with 5:20 left.

After Charroin’s shot, Stigar stole the inbounds pass and passed to Liberty Brewster, who was fouled going to the basket with 35 seconds left.

Brewster missed the front end of the one-and-one situation. Kathy Stuppy rebounded but missed a follow-up shot. Charroin wound up with the rebound but was whistled for a foul, her fifth.

Fountain Valley’s Amy Brand missed the front end of the one-and-one. Marina, which had used all its timeouts, got the ball back and hurried upcourt.

Melisa Sortino’s 18-foot jumper from the right wing was partially deflected and fell short as the buzzer sounded.

“The ball should have gone to Dee Dee (Stigar),” Marina Coach Mike Thornton said. “She wanted the ball, she has to have the ball (in that situation).”

In other Sunset League games:

Huntington Beach 53, Edison 42--Tami Chick scored 19 to lead host Huntington Beach, which led, 31-17, at halftime. Stefanie Pemper had 14 points and Jennifer Ambrose 10 for Huntington Beach (15-8, 7-3). Krisden Tanabe scored 15 points and Debbie Fischer 14 for Edison (18-8, 6-4).

Ocean View 53, Westminster 41--Erica Whistler scored 12 points for visiting Ocean View (8-18, 2-10). Julie-Ann Johnston scored 17 and Shannon Bates 15 for Westminster (4-20, 0-10).