ORANGE COUNTY ALL-STAR BASKETBALL : Easterly Rusty but Still Leads North

Even the big guns get nervous. Just ask Joni Easterly of Katella High School, the biggest star in the Orange County All-Star girls’ basketball game Sunday in UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

Easterly, the game’s most valuable player, had an itchy trigger finger. She scored 27 points to lead the North to an 89-80 victory, its ninth over the South in 12 games.

Though she led all scorers, Easterly was disappointed that she made only nine of 23 shots.

“I was totally off,” said Easterly, who will attend USC in the fall. “I was nervous at the beginning of the game. I think I was more nervous this game than in the (Southern Section) championship. I think I was a little too anxious. I wanted to put the ball in the hole bad.”

Though she was often off-target, Easterly hit key shots whenever the South tried to make a run.

“We couldn’t really stop Easterly too well,” South Coach Stan DeMaggio said. “Every time we just kind of laxed off her a little bit, Boom!, there she was. She obviously was the difference in the ballgame.”

Off or not, Easterly had strict orders from North Coach Brad Pickler: “Take the ball to the hoop.”

“I told her at the start of the game, ‘You’re going to be in there as long as you can handle it,’ ” Pickler said.

Easterly played 42 of 48 minutes, coming out late in the fourth quarter when she got into foul trouble. She not only handled the scoring responsibilities, but also handled the ball to break the South’s press in the fourth quarter.

The North controlled the game from the start. Easterly followed her own shot for the first score of the game and the North never trailed.

The North led, 26-15, after the first quarter.

The South’s front line of Holly Anderson, Kristen McDonald and Tina Ranker each picked up four fouls in the first half.

“We got in foul trouble quick,” DeMaggio said. “It did hurt us. It took Holly Anderson out of the game. That hurt us. She was our best outside shooter.”

The foul trouble and a strong shooting performance from guard Stacey Hisaka helped the quicker North squad increase its lead in the second quarter.

Hisaka, who hit a school-record 34 three-point baskets for Fountain Valley, hit two three-pointers to finish with eight points in the first half.

Another North guard, Allison Krause of Marina, hit a shot from beyond halfcourt as time ran out in the half to give the North a 46-32 lead.

In the second half, the South turned its intensity up a notch. Canyon center Keri Erkenbrack, who led the South with 18 points, and forward Kristen McDonald each scored nine.

South guard Christa Ramirez scored seven of her 12 points in the second half, but more important, she gave the South some much-needed leadership at point guard.

“We were too tentative at the guard spot,” DeMaggio said. “In the second half Christa Ramirez got more aggressive with the ball and started penetrating and going by girls and that’s when we started coming back.”

After trailing by as many as 15 points, 55-40, with 6:48 to play in the third quarter, the South cut the lead to 81-76 with 4:07 to play, after Tanya Foxe was fouled on her shot and converted a three-point play.

The North failed to score and Vicki Evans fouled Foxe, who sank both free throws to cut the lead to 81-78 with 3:47 to play.

But that was as close as the South could get.

North 89, South 80

NORTH--Krause 5, Tanabe 14, Sorour 4, Hisaka 17, Easterly 27, Rios 4, Manning 3, Hasemann 4, O’Brien 7, Carlson 4.

SOUTH--Shimoda 3, Bevis 8, Davis 2, McDonald 11, Walker 4, Okura 4, Ramirez 12, Anderson 8, Erkenbrack 18, Foxe 10.

North 26 20 19 24 -- 89 South 15 17 27 21 -- 80