SOUTH COAST LEAGUE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL : El Toro Wins, Takes the Title All by Itself

El Toro High School avenged its only loss to an Orange County team by dominating Capistrano Valley, 61-43, to win its first South Coast League basketball championship in two seasons.

“We wanted to send a message,” El Toro Coach Greg Yeck said. “We didn’t want to share the league title. We wanted it outright. This was our No. 1 goal, to win league.”

The Chargers last won a share of the championship with Mission Viejo three seasons ago and had shared the title the preceding three seasons.

El Toro is 23-5, 10-1 in league. Capistrano Valley (16-9, 7-3) is tied with Mission Viejo (17-9, 7-3) for second.

El Toro, ranked second to Brea-Olinda in the county, were upset at Capistrano Valley, 59-56, Jan. 18. Yeck called that game a “nightmare. When we played them there, we were horrendous.”

Thursday, the Chargers woke up behind outstanding perimeter shooting from guards Karie Yoshioka, Tracy Heiser and Danielle Silva, and solid post play from 6-0 center Sara Bone.

El Toro’s man-to-man pressure held Capistrano Valley scoreless the first four minutes as El Toro led, 18-8, after a quarter and 38-22 by halftime.

While the Cougars packed their zone in on Bone, limiting her to four first-half points, El Toro’s perimeter players picked up the slack. Yoshioka and Heiser led El Toro with 19 points each. Silva added 14 and Bone 10. Bridget Baker led Capistrano Valley with 13.

“I don’t think people can play us zone because our kids can flat out shoot,” Yeck said. But Capistrano Valley Coach Ray Panici said it was the best chance his shorter team had.

The Cougars came out of their zone late in the game, but it didn’t matter. El Toro led by as many as 20 points midway through the fourth quarter.

Capistrano Valley, which seemed to have adopted the motto, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, beat ‘em up,’ was hurt by foul trouble early. Four players each had three fouls by halftime. Starting point guard Alisa Farr fouled out with four minutes to play in the third quarter.

The game was intense throughout as evidenced by some finger-pointing between Yoshioka and Cougar guard Peggy Rivas in the second quarter.

“This is a major rivalry with Capo the past couple of seasons,” Yoshioka said. “The last time we played them, they were the ones going, ‘Yeah! We’re No. 1.’ We knew in our hearts who was No. 1 and we decided we’re going to come out and we’re going to show them.”

Mission Viejo 53, San Clemente 44--Jennifer Rohrig scored 19 points and had 23 rebounds to lead Mission Viejo (17-9, 7-3). Wendy Moon had 12 points for San Clemente (15-10, 4-6).

Dana Hills 68, Irvine 35--Erin Schimeneck scored 28 points for host Dana Hills (13-11, 3-7). Judy Gettis scored 24 points for Irvine (0-20, 0-10).