The Preps : Empire League Girls’ Basketball Roundup : Cypress Settles Down in Time to Hold Off Loara, 52-49

The threat of slipping into a tie for second place in the Empire League standings caused a measure of apprehension for the Cypress High School girls’ basketball team Thursday night.

And it was not without some degree of difficulty that the Centurions edged Loara, 52-49, to remain second alone at 17-6, 7-1 in league. The Saxons, who would have tied Cypress, slipped to 15-10 and 5-3.

“I expected them to be nervous, but not that nervous,” Cypress Coach Norma Leibfreid said. “I really didn’t panic, but it is kind of nerve wracking on the bench.”

Cypress found itself in a hole early, when Loara capitalized on 5 turnovers and took an 11-1 lead.

Cypress’ first point came when Stacie Kosaka sank a free throw with 5:15 remaining the first period. The Centurions’ first basket wasn’t until reserve Jamie Harris sank a basket from the corner of the key with 3:47 remaining in the quarter.

“We just couldn’t buy a bucket,” Leibfreid said. “There were too many turnovers, and they were very nervous because they knew the importance of the game.”

Early in the second period, the Centurions finally put something together to get back in it. Trailing, 23-13, with 6:36 remaining, Cypress went on a 13-2 run to take a 26-25 lead at halftime. “I told them during a timeout, we were down by about 10 I think, to relax a bit and we’ll be fine,” Leibfreid said. “It just took us a bit (to get going).”

The Centurions led by as many as six on four occasions in the second half but allowed the Saxons to close to 50-49 after Heidi Sorour’s basket with 1:50 remaining.

That was as close as the game got. A rebound-basket by Kosaka, who led the Centurions with 17 points and 14 rebounds, secured a 3-point lead with 10 seconds left.

“It was a big game for us, and we had a lot of pressure (on us),” Cypress senior Erika Manning said. “Yeah, we were nervous.”

Manning, who leads Cypress in scoring at 14.7 and rebounds at 9.4, scored 11 points and had 8 rebounds.

Katella 48, El Dorado 21--Karen Jensen led host Katella (20-3, 8-0) with 16 points, and Briana Yoshian paced El Dorado (3-14, 0-8) with 8. Katella led at the half, 26-15.

Esperanza 53, Los Alamitos 43--Guard Julee Hart scored 13 points, collected nine rebounds and had four steals to pace visiting Esperanza (8-12, 3-5). Los Alamitos center Melinda Armstrong scored 17 points, and forward Cheri Stephens added 11. Los Alamitos is 2-6 in league.