Enger Gets Some Offensive Help as Vista Wins

Her supporting cast is beginning to share center stage.

All season, Vista High School Coach Joe DeMaria has worried that senior Chris Enger--the 1988 San Diego Section player of the year--has been the team’s entire offense.

But Tuesday night against host San Dieguito, Vista opened Palomar League girls’ basketball play with a 62-20 victory, and two of Enger’s teammates came close to scoring in double figures.

“When Chris is open,” DeMaria said, “we always try to get the ball on the inside to her. But when the other team’s defense is shutting her down, I get a little worried.”

But point guard Kelli Schott and forward Dana Christofferson, seniors who have been playing with Enger since the seventh grade, helped put an end to DeMaria’s worries. They finished with 8 points each.

“I’m real pleased that in the last 6 or 7 games, Kelli has come on and is taking some shots. And we’re getting Renee (Richardson) and Brooke (Risner) to shoot more too.”

Enger, a 6-foot 4-inch center, scored 13 points in the second quarter and led Vista with 25. She scored only from the free-throw line in the first quarter, making 4 of 5 tries.

“In the first quarter, they double- and triple-teamed me,” Enger said. “I got a little frustrated. But in the second quarter Renee (Richardson) got the ball on the inside to me a lot more. I was running more.”

Vista took a 4-0 lead, but San Dieguito tied the score on Julie Brown’s 4 free throws.

Vista went up, 17-7, after the first quarter, then Enger took over in the second to give Vista a 32-14 lead at intermission.

Brown led San Dieguito with 10 points, 9 in the first half. Only two Mustangs scored in the first half.

San Dieguito was held to 6 third-quarter points and was scoreless in the fourth.

Vista is 11-2 and 1-0 in league play, having lost only to Point Loma and to Orinda’s Miramonte.

San Dieguito dropped to 5-6.

“I thought we did a great job,” San Dieguito Coach John Brennan said. “We did a good job of denying (Enger) in the first quarter. We had the right strategy, but when you’re not scoring, it gets away from you.”

Said Enger: “We did good on defense, but I think we can play better. Kelli is so unselfish, she’s always passing the ball off, but tonight she got some more shots off herself.”

“We passed well on offense and had better balance on offense,” DeMaria said. “Our defense was real good. We had a layoff since the 22nd of December and we were a little rusty in the first quarter, but they settled down.”