Prep Basketball : Empire League Girls’ Roundup : Katella Knocks Off Cypress to Win Title : Knights Claim Third Crown in a Row

Joni Easterly scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help Katella High School clinch its third consecutive Empire League championship with a 48-39 victory over second-place Cypress Thursday at Katella.

Katella (22-3, 10-0), which led by 10 twice in the fourth quarter, saw Cypress (18-7, 8-2) score seven consecutive points in three minutes to cut the Knight lead to 44-39 with 1:01 left in the game. With 57 seconds remaining, Katella’s Wendy Carlson made two free throws as the Knights scored the game’s final six points to put the game out of reach.

Katella point guard Angie Gomez, who scored six points in the fourth quarter, finished the game with 10 points while Carlson added eight.

“That was a great team win,” said Katella Coach Barb Bausch, whose team was ranked fourth in Southern Section 4-A and third in Orange County going into this week’s play. “We had a lot of kids produce for us tonight besides Joni.”

Katella, which was plagued by 11 first-half turnovers, trailed after one quarter, 15-11. Cypress’ Stacie Kosaka, who scored six of her eight first-quarter points in the last three minutes of the period, finished the game with nine points.

Karen Jensen connected on two jumpers in the first 40 seconds of the second half to tie the game, 15-15. After a Sheryl Murakoshi outside shot gave Cypress a 17-15 lead with 7:03 left, Easterly made a free throw and an inside bank shot to give Katella an 18-17 lead with 5:36 left in the half.

Katella led by as much as five twice in the second period before the Centurions outscored the Knights, 5-2, in the last three minutes of the quarter to cut the Knight lead to 26-24 as the halftime buzzer sounded.

Frances Oda, who scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half, scored six points in the third quarter as the Centurions, who trailed Katella by eight twice in the period, finished the quarter down, 36-30.

“They’re a good team, what else can you say?” said Cypress Coach Norma Leibfried of Katella. “We kind of had a flat third quarter and they got some key calls that could have gone either way, but we kept right in there.”

Loara 65, Esperanza 37--Forward Michelle Roland and guard Heidi Sorour each had 13 points to lead visiting Loara. Guard Wendy Neade led Esperanza with nine points.

Los Alamitos 64, El Dorado 35--Allison Arredondo scored 22 points and Melinda Armstrong added 16 to pace host Los Alamitos (3-6). El Dorado (0-9) was led in scoring by forward Chrissy Nieman with 10 points.