PREP BASKETBALL : Empire League Girls’ Roundup : Katella Survives a Dreadful Start : Easterly Leads Second-Half Comeback Over Loara, 50-37

The first half of Katella High School’s Empire League girls’ basketball game against Loara Tuesday night was about as bad a half as the Knights have suffered through this season.

The Knights scored only 15 points and trailed by 7 at halftime. They couldn’t hold on to the ball, much less put it in the basket.

“We played like a JV team,” Katella Coach Barb Bausch said.

“The first half was just awful,” Katella guard Joni Easterly added.

Katella managed to straighten itself out in the second half, however, and recorded a 50-37 victory at Loara.

Katella, ranked third in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll, is 21-3 overall, 9-0 and in first place in the Empire League. Loara falls to 15-11, 5-4.

A victory over Cypress (9-1 and in second place) Thursday at Katella would give the Knights the Empire League championship.

Easterly, the team’s leading scorer with a 22-point average, scored the first basket of the game, but was held scoreless for the rest of the half. She sat out the final 3 minutes 57 seconds after picking up her third foul.

That was just one reason the Knights trailed, 22-15, at the half. Another was that Loara outscored the Knights, 13-3, in the second quarter as Katella’s offense suddenly went silent.

“If we had played good in the second quarter we could have put the game out of reach,” Loara Coach Gary Blate said. “I don’t think we played all that well in the second quarter, Katella just didn’t play well either.”

But Katella rallied after intermission. The Knights outscored Loara, 12-2, in the third quarter, taking the lead for good on a follow shot by Easterly with 2:01 left in the quarter.

Sorour, a guard, had 18 points, 12 in the first half, to lead Loara. But the Saxons were never able to mount a rally and trailed by as many as 15 points late in the game.

Easterly had a game-high 22 points and forward Karen Jensen added 10 for Katella.

“(It seems like) we never play well against Loara,” Bausch said. “We acted like it was the CIF (Southern Section) finals and we had no business being in the gym in the first half.”

And with Easterly on the bench, there seemed to be no one willing to take over as the team’s leader.

“When she’s out we’ve got to find someone to pick up the slack,” Bausch said. “No one was looking to shoot. It was like, ‘Who wants the ball? Not me.’ ”

Cypress 61, Los Alamitos 43--Frances Oda scored 18 points and had 10 assists to lead host Cypress (18-6, 8-1). Sheryl Murakoshi scored 14 and Erika Manning added 10 for Cypress. Melinda Armstrong scored 14 and Allison Arredondo 13 for Los Alamitos (4-16, 2-7).

Esperanza 50, El Dorado 23--Kim Kordik scored 20 points to lead visiting Esperanza (3-3 in league play). Chrissy Nieman had 12 points for El Dorado (0-6 in league play).