5-AA Girls : El Toro’s Impressive First Half Is Enough to Outlast Redlands
El Toro High School played an almost flawless first half in its Southern Section 5-AA first-round playoff game against Redlands Thursday night at El Toro.
The Chargers led by 15 points and appeared to have the game well in hand. A full-court press and a balanced scoring attack helped account for the big lead.
“We were a little in awe of El Toro in the first half,” Redlands Coach Gary Luebbers said, trying to explain his team’s slow start.
But a funny thing happened to the Chargers en route to a 64-53 victory. El Toro started to run out of gas midway through the fourth quarter and allowed Redlands to make a game of it.
Redlands cut the 15-point lead down to only, 51-47, with 5 minutes left in the game. But that was as close as the Terriers could get as El Toro’s Kristen Bevis scored seven of her team-high 17 points in the final minutes and the Chargers hung on.
El Toro (18-9) will face Simi Valley in the second round on Saturday. Redlands finishes its season 17-7.
El Toro’s full-court pressure defense seemed to catch Redlands off guard in the early going.
After Holly Baumgarten’s basket put Redlands up, 6-4, El Toro held the Terriers scoreless for the rest of the first quarter.
By the time Kim Burr scored the Terriers’ next points with 7:37 left in the half, El Toro had built a 20-8 lead. And the Chargers appeared to be on the verge of turning the game into a rout.
It never happened, though, much to the dismay of El Toro Coach Greg Yeck.
“We looked like we were ready to put them away and then they came back,” Yeck said. “They were really tough in the second half.”
Redlands managed to cut the lead down to 10 by the end of the third quarter, 49-39, mainly because leading scorer Darnell Good found her shooting touch.
Good, who averages 20 points, had only four in the first half. But she had eight in the third quarter to help Redlands get close.
She was particularly effective in breaking El Toro’s man-to-man press and eventually Yeck had to take the Chargers out of it.
“She kept blowing by it for easy baskets,” Yeck said. “She forced us to come out of the full-court press.”
In the fourth quarter, Good’s jump shot, quickly followed by a three-pointer, brought Redlands to within, 51-45. And when Heather Michaelis made two free throws with 5 minutes to go, the Terriers were in striking distance.
But Bevis took control down the stretch for El Toro.
Good led all scorers with 20 points and Michaelis added 14 for Redlands, which had only one senior in the starting lineup. Center Sara Bone had 16 and point guard Karie Yoshioka 15 for El Toro.
Fountain Valley 63, Saddleback 20--Center Yvette Ybarra, playing just a few minutes at the start of each half, scored 12 points to pace Fountain Valley. The Barons had 12 of 15 players score. Julie Workman had eight points for Fountain Valley (19-8) and Jennifer Barbara had 11 rebounds and eight points. Janet Chacon led the Roadrunners (14-11) with seven points.