GIRLS’ 2--A BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Woodbridge Will Be On Its Toes Against Chino

Angie Hubner is the tallest player on the Woodbridge High School girls’ basketball team. She is only 5-feet 9-inches tall, which isn’t all that small, but Hubner plays center for the Warriors.

Most of the opposing centers she has faced this season are anywhere from three to six inches taller than she is.

“I’m so short compared to everyone else, so I try to look tall,” said Hubner, a junior. “I extend my arms a lot to get rebounds, and I stand on my tippy-toes a lot.”

Hubner is on her toes often.

Woodbridge’s other “big” players are Kathy Millat, a 5-8 wing player, and Lisa Wehren, a 5-7 forward.

By contrast, Woodbridge’s semifinal opponent, Ontario, had a 6-1 center, and forwards who were 6-1 and 6-0. St. Mary’s, the Warriors’ quarterfinal foe, was equally as tall.

Hubner and her Woodbridge teammates will play Chino for the Southern Section’s 2-A division championship tonight at 8:45 at Cerritos College.

“They have some tall people, just like all the teams we play,” Hubner said. “I’m used to it. I’ve been the tallest player for the past two years.”

Well, not quite.

On the eve of the Warriors’ season-opening scrimmage against La Quinta last November, Hubner injured her knee while making a difficult pass in practice.

She got twisted around and landed on the knee wrong, tearing a ligament. Hubner missed all of Woodbridge’s nonleague schedule and all but six Pacific Coast League games.

With Hubner sidelined, Millat and Gina Krouse, a junior reserve forward who also is 5-8, were the team’s tallest players. Still, Woodbridge never stopped winning.

And Hubner’s desire to return to help the Warriors in the playoffs never waned.

“I really wanted us to win,” she said. “I really had a goal to make the finals. I wanted to do well in the playoffs.”

Since Hubner returned, she has had to wear a big blue $410 knee brace for support. It took her a couple of games to get accustomed to wearing the heavy brace, but it hasn’t put her at a disadvantage.

She has averaged about eight points a game since returning. And having her back gives the Warriors “some height,” as Coach Eric Bangs terms it.

Woodbridge should be at a big disadvantage when it plays Chino. The Warriors should get outrebounded. They should have difficulty defending the taller Chino players. They should have problems scoring inside.

They should lose.

That has been the scouting report on Woodbridge.

But a fast-breaking offense, a quick defense and some determined play from Hubner have enabled the Warriors to post a 25-5 record and advance to the championship game.

“We like to press and run our speed game,” Hubner said. “Our quickness balances out the other team’s height.”

Bangs’ scouting reports on opponents have helped, too, Hubner said.

“He really does a great scouting job,” she said. “We’re ready going into games. That helps us because we are so short. We need to know what offenses and defenses we need to run.”

Nevertheless, Woodbridge probably will be considered an underdog when it faces Chino tonight.

“We had the feeling that we could get here (to the championship) because there was no pressure on us,” Hubner said.