WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STATE JC CHAMPIONSHIPS : Finishing With a Rush, Valley Heats Up to Beat Southwestern, 86-56

In the first half, Valley College’s Tisa Rush was a shooter without a conscience, scoring only three field goals despite tossing up 14 attempts.

In the second half, Rush was simply unconscious, making eight of 12 field-goal attempts.

Add the two halves together and Rush scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Valley College women to a ho-hum 86-56 victory over visiting Southwestern on Wednesday night in the first round of the Southern California regional of the state tournament.

“Rush decided in the second half to get some points against us,” said Southwestern Coach Valerie Goodwin-Colbert, who called Rush the quickest player her team had faced all year. “She’s outstanding.”

Rush is faster, to borrow a phrase from Tom McGuane, than puffed rice shot from a cannon, but in the first half she was pulling the trigger a little early and misfiring repeatedly.

“I was just off,” Rush said. “I kept shooting because I knew it would come.”

With Rush finding the range, 15th-seeded Southwestern (16-11) had little hope of overcoming a 21-point halftime deficit against second-seeded Valley (29-4).

Southwestern closed to within 16, at 50-34, but Rush scored 13 points in the final 15 minutes to protect the lead.

Gunning for its fourth consecutive berth in the state Final Four, Valley never really found its stride in the stifling heat of its own gym.

“It was a strange game,” said Coach Doug Michelson, who improved his postseason record at Valley to 11-3. “I’m not sure what contributed to it, but it was a strange game.”

Southwestern, co-champion of the Pacific Coast Conference, was one of the few teams that attempted to press Valley this season. After some initial turnovers, Valley began to break the press for easy baskets.

However, the relatively easy victory was tempered by the loss of point guard Sylvia Castaneda. She injured her right ankle with six minutes and 29 seconds remaining and, according to Michelson, was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital for X-rays.

Valley’s Katina Mines and Roz Linton scored 13 and 12 points, respectively. Falicia Stanley and Claudia Rocha scored nine each. Castaneda had nine assists, and Mines led Valley with nine rebounds.

Goodwin-Colbert called Valley “definitely one of the best teams we played this year.”

As far as an overall team,” she said, “they’re the best.”

Monica Vargas led Southwsetrn with 14 points. Marcey Wolf and Colleen Gannon each added 12 points.