La Quinta Outguns West Torrance in Girls Final

Billed as a duel between West Torrance High’s back court dynamo Rosa Olloque and La Quinta’s 6-foot-2 scoring sensation Amy Jalewalia, Friday night’s Southern Section 4-A girls basketball final was decided more by the supporting casts.

La Quinta walked away with the championship at Cal Poly Pomona, 72-62, led by Jalewalia’s 32 points, but it was senior forward Heather Brannan who proved to be the difference, powering her way to 25 points and 14 rebounds.

For West, the strategy remained the same as it has been all year: Get the ball to Olloque.

The strategy has been particularly difficult for opponents to stop because Olloque, the point guard, brings the ball up court. In the first half, Olloque outscored Jalewalia, who averaged a section-leading 34.3 points per game, 16-15, and the Warriors were still within reach at halftime, 32-28.

But the Lady Aztecs were simply too strong for West inside, out-rebounding the Warriors, 31-24, in the second half, as Brannan and Jalewalia took over.

West Coach Kevin McManus, who guided the Warriors to their first CIF championship game appearance, admitted that West had lost to a better team.

“They are a great team,” he said. “One player shouldn’t win a game. It’s the other people that made us come out of double-teamming her.”

Nonetheless, it has been a good season for West and Olloque, and it may not be over. The Warriors have a chance of being selected to compete in the State Division II regionals.

But that didn’t stop Olloque from shedding a few tears after the game.

“Rosa was crying,” McManus said. “But she was expecting to win a championship and be vindicated. She’s a real star in this game, and she doesn’t get much credit.”

After holding Jalewalia to five points in the second quarter, West saw Olloque held to only two in the third quarter, when La Quinta’s lead ballooned to 10.

La Quinta Coach Kevin Kiernan said that guards with Olloque’s penetration skills have caused his team problems all season, and a change of defensive strategy at halftime was responsible for the decisive third quarter.

“We wanted to forget about pressing and get back into our normal defense,” he said.

West was outscored, 17-10, in the quarter.

“Obviously, the third quarter won the game,” McManus said. “I guess I didn’t make a very good locker room speech at halftime. We weren’t ready when we came out, or they were more ready than we were.”

In the fourth quarter, the Warriors seemed to take the floor with renewed intensity, making it clear that if they were going to go, at least they weren’t going quietly. Olloque matched Jalewalia basket for basket, scoring nine of her 24 points in the final period.

“That girl did a great job,” Kiernan said. “They’re a good team. You don’t get this far without being a really good team. They worked hard and they came back. We had them down by 13 and they kept coming back.”

McManus said that this team’s closeness and ability to work together have set it apart from the other girls teams he has coached in 10 years at West.

“Rosa’s skills are tremendous,” he said. “But the ability of the other players to mold themselves around her skills has been the real key to it. Mary Litzenberg is a competitive athlete and a proud person and she has been able to mold her skills around Rosa. They are completely opposite personalities, but they work great together.”