DIVISION II BASKETBALL PREVIEWS : GIRLS

Mention Point Loma in the same breath as girls’ basketball, and the combination turns ordinarily composed young ladies into Jello.

But when San Pasqual meets Point Loma for the Division II San Diego Section girls’ title at 1:30 today, the mold will have already been set and hardened.

Two months ago on Jan. 2, San Pasqual and Point Loma met in a preseason game in Escondido, and San Pasqual took a nail-biting, 53-52 victory in overtime.

“Then we were in the ‘We’re playing Point Loma’ frame of mind,” Terry Bamford, San Pasqual’s second-year coach. “We tried to press the first half, but the fear factor was there.”

Granted, as Point Loma Coach Lee Trepanier and Bamford are quick to point out, the Pointers were without seniors Tyeast Brown and Ericka Crittenden.

“We play a different kind of game without them,” Trepanier said. “There were two different halves in that game. We won the first half, they won the second.”

Nonetheless, it was a major energizer for San Pasqual (24-4), which is undefeated in 1990 and hasn’t lost since a Christmas tournament in Las Vegas.

“That was a confidence booster for us,” Bamford said. “It was a big game. To win one like that and come back when we were down 33-13 at the half, that was really great.”

Second-seeded San Pasqual lost twice in Nevada, once to the University High of Irvine and once to Poway. Against University and Poway, Bamford, also the women’s basketball coach at MiraCosta College, didn’t arrive until the second and third quarters.

Top-seeded Point Loma (26-3) lost its three games starting in the final of its own Ben Fischer Tournament Dec. 30--to Bakersfield North, 40-35--then its next two games to San Pasqual and Oceanside.

It was the first time since 1978 that Point Loma had suffered three consecutive losses. It has won 14 since.

Starting for Point Loma are forwards Brown (6-0, 23.5 points, nine rebounds per game) and Crittenden (5-8, 13.5, seven rebounds), senior center Robin Rabello (6-1, 12 points), junior guard Stacy Wainwright (5-8) and senior guard Claudine Neves (5-6).

San Pasqual will counter with junior center Becki Callahan (5-11, 13.5), senior guards Nikki Gannon (5-5, 15.8) and Hope Licon (5-5, 7.0), sophomore forward Valerie Ryan (5-9, 10.0), and junior guard Jill Combe (5-6, 7.0).