Basketball Roundup : Point Loma Girls Finish Old Business, Beat Patrick Henry

By the time Friday’s Point Loma-Patrick Henry girls’ basketball game was finished, Point Loma point guard Monica Filer was still talking about the last time the Pointers played at Patrick Henry.

That was in 1988, when Point Loma walked into Henry’s house and was stung with a last-second, 2-point loss. Easy to remember, because it was Pointers’ first defeat in 6 1/2 years.

And that was the first thing Filer wanted to talk about after she and her mates sealed away a 55-40 victory to retain first place in the City Eastern League.

“That was the first time we played them since we lost to them,” Filer said. “They beat us last year, so we said we’ve got to beat them this year.”

So Filer, playing with zeal at both ends of the court, saw to it that the Pointers did. She finished with 15 points and 14 assists and would have had a few more of the latter had the Pointers handled more of her deft passes.

“That’s more balls than we’ve ever dropped before,” Point Loma Coach Lee Trepanier said.

Point Loma (21-1, 5-0) started quickly, opening a 21-9 lead, but Patrick Henry’s persistent, man-to-man defensive pressure spurred the Patriots into a 7-2 run to make the score 23-18.

Point Loma led at halftime, 27-20, and took command for good early in the third quarter. Tyeast Brown, who led Point Loma with 18 points and 12 rebounds, got the ball inside and scored the first basket of the second half. After a Patrick Henry turnover, Filer sank a 15-foot jump shot to make it 31-20.

Patrick Henry then turned the ball over three consecutive times: Claudine Neves and Chris Drumm each had a steal, and Rachelle Johnson traveled. By the time the Patriots escaped the twilight zone, they still trailed by double figures, and time was getting short.

Johnson and Sorii Epps were admirable in the middle for Patrick Henry, but the two weren’t enough to combat Point Loma’s balance. Johnson led Patrick Henry (14-5, 4-1) with 19 points and 15 rebounds--including 10 in the first half. Epps contributed 12 points.

Drumm, with 16 points, was the third Point Loma player in double figures.