Brea-Olinda Owes Defeat of Palos Verdes to Defense

It is not difficult to find some very obvious reasons for the Palos Verdes High School Sea Kings’ 50-33 defeat Wednesday night by Brea-Olinda in the Southern Section 3-AA girls basketball final.

Some blame goes to the large, noisy crowd that filled Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Gym. But Palos Verdes has played in front of large crowds before.

More blame can be attributed to jitters induced by a championship final. But again, the Sea Kings have been there before. They won a sectional title two years ago.

And a fair amount of blame was a result of intimidation by Brea-Olinda’s national ranking, although Palos Verdes certainly would not admit to that.

Legitimate as some of those reasons may be, none were as significant in contributing to Palos Verdes’ defeat as the defense of Brea-Olinda’s Tammy Blackburn.

Blackburn, a senior guard, is sometimes overshadowed by the scoring of teammate Aimee McDaniel, but you can’t overlook her performance Wednesday.

“I was told all week, ‘We win the game if you hold (Lisa) Humphreys down,’ ” Blackburn said.

Shut her down, indeed.

Humphreys, the Sea Kings’ leading scorer at 15.4 points a game, was held to five points on two-of-18 field goal attempts.

Blackburn shadowed Humphreys step for step, and not coincidentally, it was Humphreys’ worst game of the season.

“Tammy Blackburn did a great job defensing me,” Humphreys explained.

“They are just a great defensive team. Other teams can play tough man-to-man defense, but not as intense as they can,” she said.

Said Palos Verdes Coach Wendell Yoshida, “Tammy Blackburn never gets enough credit for how hard she plays and her defense.”

Humphreys’ first field goal was a three-point basket with 4:23 remaining in the game, but by then Palos Verdes trailed 44-25. And Humphreys had missed her first 11 field goal attempts.

“That’s Blackburn,” said Brea- Olinda Coach Mark Trakh after being told Humphreys’ shooting statistic. “(Humphreys) got to score for them to win.”

If Palos Verdes is going to advance in the state regionals--the pairings will be announced Sunday--it needs other options besides Humphreys.

“We didn’t get the normal balance we usually get,” Yoshida said.

In the final, the inside play of sophomore Monique Morehouse can’t be faulted. Morehouse was active and aggressive inside, but she couldn’t do it single-handedly.

Her play, with 13 points and 10 rebounds, kept the Sea Kings in the game. But although strong inside play is a necessity, it’s not enough alone.

The Sea Kings can involve Kristen Jaconi and Mary Maloney in the offense more frequently. Jaconi, in particular, has the experience, size and strength to provide inside scoring.

Most of the Sea Kings’ offensive sets involve patient passing around the perimeter and then looking for a lob from the wing into Morehouse. Another favorite Palos Verdes option is to look for Humphreys cutting to the key.

But a tight man-to-man defense, such as Brea-Olinda used, kept the ball out of Humphreys’ hands. And when she did get the ball, she had problems driving and getting up a good shot.

Against Brea-Olinda, Palos Verdes didn’t get off many good shots, only making 16% in the first half (4-24) and 24% for the game (13-54).

And the Sea Kings didn’t take care of the basketball very well either. Humphreys and point guard Susan Wilhite had 12 turnovers, six apiece.

Adding to Palos Verdes’ problems was a lack of penetration and passing off by Wilhite. She was only credited with one assist.

When Wilhite uses her quickness and penetrates, the defense is thrown off balance. And it helps draw the defense away from Morehouse and gets Humphreys open for an outside shot.

What about next time?

“We achieved our goal of just getting to the final,” Humphreys said. “We have nothing to be embarrassed about.

“But we set some new goals today,” she said. “We want another crack at them.”