Castle Park Girls Win; Vista Beaten

Some games look so good on paper that the real thing just can’t quite match up.

Take Thursday’s Metro Conference girls’ basketball game at Castle Park, where the 10th-ranked Trojans defeated Southwest, 55-45.

“This was a pivotal game for us,” first-year Coach Bob Hodson said.

The teams shared 6-1 records in the league, had the league’s top two offenses and its leading scorers--Castle Park’s Christina Murguia and Southwest’s Mesega Johnson, who rank fourth and fifth in the county.

But it was 6-foot senior center Lana Iuli whose 10-point effort in the third quarter gave Castle Park the cushion it needed for the fourth, when Murguia sat out almost the entire period because of foul trouble.

The Trojans outscored Southwest, 20-10, in the third quarter for a 45-33 lead.

“This is only the second game this year when we’ve gotten into foul trouble,” Hodson said. “‘We had to show ourselves we could face adversity.”

Both Iuli and Southwest’s Johnson finished with 26 points. Murguia had 18.

Castle Park improved to 14-5 and 7-1 and will play league-leading Bonita Vista on Tuesday. Southwest dropped to 11-6, 6-2.

“I was really nervous about this game,” said Iuli, who had a season-high performance. “I was thinking about it all week.”

Southwest’s only leads came at 4:07 in the first quarter (7-5) and in the middle of the second (19-18).