Cool as Ice: Aimee McDaniel Quietly Becomes a Force for Brea-Olinda : Prep basketball: She might not look the part, but she picks apart defenses to become top scorer on nation’s fourth-ranked team.

She has inspired the nicknames “ice” and “baby-faced assassin,” definite clues to the type of basketball player Aimee McDaniel is.

They call her “ice” because Brea-Olinda High School’s senior point guard is hard-edged and cool under pressure on the court. And baby-faced assassin? Well, she’s only 5-6, wears her blonde hair in a ponytail, and has the face of a cherub. But her passing, the most potent weapon in her arsenal, has riddled opposing teams like bullets from an automatic.

It was assistant coach John Hattrup who first called her the baby-faced assassin.

“It (the nickname) is not too bad,” McDaniel said. “It just bugs me for some reason because it reminds me of a killer and I’m not a killer. I mean I have been called worse things.

“On the court I’m like a, how do I put this nicely, I’m very aggressive. Off the court, I’m sort of hum-de-dum, but on the court I’d do almost anything to win. Well, not anything bad.”

Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh agrees: “She’s very free-spirited, not very intense, fun-loving. Something happens when the ball is tipped off. She becomes the total antithesis of that.”

Though nobody would mistake her for a quick runner or explosive jumper, she knows how to play off screens or create openings for her shot. That, and her ability to shoot the three-point shot, has helped her become the leading scorer (16.5 points a game) on a team that gets double-figure scoring from three other starters and is ranked fourth in the nation by USA Today.

McDaniel broke the school’s career scoring record of 1,778 points Tuesday in the opening round of the Southern California Division III regional basketball playoffs in Brea-Olinda’s victory over San Diego Lincoln. She has 1,807 points, breaking the record set by Carrie Egan from 1984-87.

“Luckily I had a chance to learn the three-point shot and lot of them go in,” McDaniel said. “A lot of it is just teamwork. When you have the great team I played on for four years everything just clicks.” With McDaniel running the point, the Lady Cats won their first state championship (Division III), had a player named the most valuable player in the division--McDaniel--and got their first national ranking last season.

They are favored to repeat as Southern California regional champions today when they face Palos Verdes at 9:30 a.m. at the L.A. Sports Arena. They also are heavily favored to repeat as state champions.

“I think the first (title) is the most cherished one,” McDaniel said, “but back-to-back would be nice. I’m not going to say it wouldn’t be. There is a lot more pressure this year. Like, at the beginning of the year people were already planning to go to Oakland.

“It’s hard because it is just playing under pressure and we get a little big-headed sometimes, and I think Palos Verdes is the perfect team that could upset us. We have to keep our heads in it.”

The Lady Cats are working on a school-record winning streak of 54 games, second in Southern Section girls’ basketball history to the 84-game winning streak set by the Cheryl Miller-Riverside Poly teams of 1978-82.

For the first time, the Lady Cats toppled national powers outside Orange County, beating Morningside (then top-ranked nationally) and Los Angeles Washington to win the Tournament of Champions in Santa Barbara in December.

“Aimee is responsible for bringing our program up a notch and making us a national power,” Trakh said.

It is against ranked city teams that McDaniel’s game seems to rise a level along with her intensity. She may bury a three-point shot at the buzzer to send a game into overtime as she did against Washington, she may talk trash, if invited to. She may just give the icy stare.

Against Morningside, with Brea-Olinda in control late in the game, McDaniel was fouled intentionally and hard as she went to the basket, Trakh said.

“The kid got up in her face and said something to her and Aimee said, ‘Didn’t you guys used to be the No. 1 team in the nation?’

“She does it to show she is not intimidated by them. Her attitude for those big teams is our equalizer.”

McDaniel’s greatest strength is her passing. She averages 5.4 assists a game.

“She has a tremendous sense for the game,” Trakh said. “On the fast break, if she doesn’t have a pass, she can wait that split second later for the pass to develop and hit that player. She is the best high school passer I have ever seen. She throws it soft so the kids can catch it and leads them perfectly.”

Though USC, UNLV, Cal State Long Beach were among the schools that came calling, McDaniel chose Pepperdine.

“I wanted to stay at a smaller school,” she said. “I don’t plan to play basketball after college and a good education would be nice to start off with in life.”

DIVISION III GIRLS’ CHAMPIONSHIP GAME LINEUPS

Brea-Olinda (34-0)

Name Ht. Yr. PPG Pos. Jody Anton 5-11 So 11.1 F Allison Bickell 6-0 Sr 7.8 F Jinelle Williams 5-9 Jr 15.5 C Tammy Blackburn 5-8 Sr 14.9 G Aimee McDaniel 5-6 Sr 16.4 G

Coach Mark Trakh

Palos Verdes (29-5)

Name Ht. Yr. PPG Pos. Mary Maloney 6-0 Sr 10.0 F Kristen Jaconi 6-0 Sr 6.8 F Monique Morehouse 6-3 So 11.4 C Susan Wilhite 5-6 Sr 10.2 G Lisa Humphreys 5-10 Sr 15.4 G

Coach Wendell Yoshida