For the Most Part, This Freshman Is One Cool Cat : Division II girls: Point guard Nicole Erickson gets the jitters now and then, but she makes things go for 31-1 Brea-Olinda.

Turns out that Nicole Erickson, the poised freshman point guard for the Brea-Olinda girls’ basketball team, has warm blood in her veins after all.

Or at least lukewarm.

Erickson, who always seems to be in control, is one of the reasons the Lady Cats (31-1) are in the Southern California Regional Division II final today against Ventura (25-4) at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. But she said appearances can be misleading.

Consider, for instance, Brea’s 50-42 victory over Ventura last Saturday in the Southern Section championship game at Cal Poly Pomona.

“I was so nervous in that game,” Erickson said. “I wasn’t mentally in the game. I wasn’t really enjoying it that much.”

Her statistics reflected her frame of mind. Erickson made three of 13 shots, two of four free throws and committed five turnovers. She also failed to hit on three three-point attempts, one of her fortes.

But she bounced back nicely Tuesday with 17 points against Torrance Bishop Montgomery and 14 against Carlsbad Thursday.

Erickson, a 5-foot-6 14-year-old who averages 11 points, said being thrust into the starting lineup of a perennial powerhouse such as Brea didn’t trouble her. Not after the first few games, anyway.

“Coming out of the summer (league) games, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I have to replace Aimee (McDaniel).’ But I have had hardly any pressure,” Erickson said. “The only pressure that I’ve had I put it on myself.”

McDaniel, now playing at Pepperdine, was The Times’ Player of the Year in Orange County last season and perhaps the best player ever at Brea. But Coach Mark Trakh said Erickson could eventually knock McDaniel from the perch.

“She’s much better than Aimee was when Aimee was a freshman,” Trakh said. “The key now is whether she’s going to improve and be as good as Aimee was when she was a sophomore.”

Trakh said Erickson needs to shoot more, to have more of a lead guard mentality, if she wants to develop. He wants her to cut loose on the offensive end.

“She can do a lot of things right now, like dribbling between her legs, that will entertain people, but she doesn’t want to be a hotdog,” Trakh said. “She does things in practice that are amazing.”

But even though she has been, in Trakh’s words, “a godsend,” Erickson doesn’t escape the coach’s wrath. She got an on-court, public scolding by Trakh in the Carlsbad game after a couple of defensive lapses.

“She turned her head, and they (opponents) went backdoor on her a couple of times,” Trakh said. “I get on her for her defense. Her dad gets on her for her offense.”

Said Keith Erickson, Nicole’s father: “She has to be reminded sometimes . . . By yelling at her, it’s like waking her up.”

Erickson said she doesn’t like the chiding, but takes it in stride.

“My first instinct is to give him (Trakh) a dirty look and just walk away,” Erickson said, “but I’ve learned to take it as advice and suck it in. I don’t take it like he’s saying, ‘You stink.’ ”

That’s the attitude, even during the rough games, that makes Erickson the coolest Cat of all. And a crowd favorite already.

“The other day after a game, one of the junior high kids asked her for an autograph,” Trakh said.