Alemany Girls Fall to Katella in Semifinal

Alemany High Coach Melissa Melton could afford to be gracious Thursday night, despite the fact that her team suffered a 34-30 loss to Katella in the semifinals of the Bell-Jeff summer girls’ basketball tournament.

After all, the Indians had advanced further than expected, and will play for third place tonight at 7 against Brea. Katella meets Morningside at 8:10 p.m. for the championship.

“I’m not disappointed,” Melton said. “We felt like we could win, and nobody thought we could finish third or fourth.”

Alemany won the San Fernando Valley League title last season, but this summer’s younger team was not expected to pose much of a challenge against top teams. Center Andrea Hoffman and guard Sylvia Castaneda picked up the slack, however, leading Alemany to three wins in the tournament before falling to a quicker, more experienced team.

Castaneda hit two free throws and a baseline jumper, and Hoffman added an 8-footer to pull Alemany to within 32-30 with 39 seconds to play. But an errant Alemany pass with 29 seconds left gave Katella the ball for good.

Castaneda finished with 11 points and Hoffman added eight.

Katella led, 25-22, with four minutes remaining and point guard Angie Gomez hit her second high-arching three-pointer and followed it with a layup off the break to give Katella an eight-point advantage.

A sluggish first half by both teams ended with Alemany leading, 16-15, on Nicole Miller’s layup at the buzzer. Joni Easterly, a 5-10 forward, had 19 points and four rebounds to pace Katella.