HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : As Okert Sits Out Castle Park Stands Over Montgomery

Even 19 minutes after she was ejected, Castle Park’s Erica Okert still felt like a woman scorned.

“I lost my balance,” Okert protested Tuesday night after being forced to watch Castle Park defeat host Montgomery, 71-58, almost entirely from the bench.

With 3:14 left in the second quarter and the Trojans leading, 28-25, referee Dave Dendy called Okert, the conferences’ second leading rebounder, for intentionally elbowing Montgomery’s Monica Vargas.

“She elbowed the girl,” Dendy said. He said it was not only intentional, “it was flagrant,” he said.

It was an important call for both sides. Montgomery either gets a break because a wrench is thrown in Castle Park’s big rebounding game, or the Trojans get angry and inspired.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. Castle Park goes ahead, 40-31, at the half and extends it by more each quarter. Montgomery never lead after the first quarter.

“When we lost Erica, they responded well,” first-year Coach Chuck Mills said. “The rest of the girls had to pick up quite a load. Christina (Murguia) picked up her game quite a bit and Debbie Davis had a phenomenal game.”

Oh yes, Christina. All the county’s second leading scorer (30.1 average going into this game) did was score 36 points and pull down 18 rebounds.

“I knew it could go either way,” said Murguia. “By the end of the second quarter we started playing our game.”

That’s when the Trojans had adjusted to the Aztecs’ tough press.

“We practiced breaking their press all week, but at first we didn’t because they’re so quick.”

But Montgomery (12-5, 6-1) was having its own problems, pertaining mostly to its shooting.

“We missed everything,” Montgomery Coach Lori Morris said. “We never do that. But (Castle Park) looked great.”

Brooke Scarborough and Claudia Medina each had 16 points for the Aztecs.

Said Mills of his defending league champion Trojans: “We’re building a program here, and we don’t want to lose. We’re building for the future.”

The victory put more flavor in an already scrumptious league race, as the Trojans (12-3, 6-1) moved into a tie for the conference lead after the first round.