HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : No. 2 Santana’s Sultans Swat No. 3 El Cajon

Santana Coach Wade Vickery pulled starter Rebecca Aase from the court with less than a minute remaining Tuesday in a girls’ basketball game at Santana. Then and only then did the 5-foot-8 senior break out in a grin.

“I just try and concentrate on the game, the whole time,” said Aase, after the Sultans defeated El Cajon, 74-53, to take the lead in Grossmont 2-A.

Second-ranked Santana took a 54-33 lead against third-ranked El Cajon going into the fourth quarter, but still Aase was shooting, passing, and hustling.

“She’s really a tough kid,” said Vickery. “Statistically, she’s one of the all time greats who has played for us.”

Then Vickery pointed to a gym wall. “She’ll have her name up there. She’ll definitely be a hall of famer.”

Since her freshman year, when she first started for Vickery, Aase hasn’t missed a game. Curiously, she sprained her left foot Jan. 30 in a league game against West Hills and was on crutches until Saturday, but Santana had a bye on Thursday, keeping her perfect record intact.

“She’s been on a treadmill since Thursday,” Vickery said, “I was a little concerned, but if it had been a bigger problem, she wouldn’t have played.”

But play she did. Aase, the county’s seventh leading scorer (19.0 average) scored 17 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and was largely responsible for the transition game that kept El Cajon puzzled.

“They have a lot of speed,” Aase said, “so we had to quicken our transition game, bear down and get the fast break.”

El Cajon is now 0-3 against Santana this season--the Sultans won the first game by two in overtime, the second by 12 points.

“They definitely deserve that ranking,” El Cajon Coach Robert Holm said. “We’re ranked, and we took a beating.”

Debbie Duhaney, the county’s fifth leading scorer (19.7 average), finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Teammate Sara Mease added 16 for El Cajon (18-4, 4-2).

But El Cajon couldn’t contain Santana’s post game, and was out-rebounded 57-30.

“We didn’t want to block out,” said Holm. “We got out-rebounded and we let them take too many shots inside.”

Said Vickery: “We don’t have too much speed, but we have so many other weapons.”

Such as: Stephanie Thompson, who scored a game high 24 for the Sultans (19-3, 5-0), and Denise Weimann (18) and Heather Ashcraft (15).

“(El Cajon’s) a good club. They have a lot of talent,” Aase said, “but we played super. The league championship was one the line.”