Mejia Rebounds for North Hollywood : Girls’ basketball: After an off night, she scores career-high 21 in 62-51 win over Van Nuys.

Martha Mejia turned in a two-for-19 shooting performance earlier this week in North Hollywood High’s win over Monroe, but Coach Rich Allen encouraged her to keep shooting.

The advice paid off Friday when Mejia scored a career-high 21 points to lead North Hollywood to a 62-51 victory over Van Nuys in a Valley Pac-8 Conference first-place showdown.

Mejia, a guard who had not scored more than 14 points in a game, had 10 in the third quarter alone as the Huskies rallied from a five-point deficit to take a 45-40 advantage.

Mejia hit nine of 12 shots from the field and made three of three free throws. “We played outstanding defense in the second half,” Allen said. “When we get in a lull, we don’t talk about scoring, we mention playing hard defense. We played very intelligently in the second half.”

With a lead in the fourth quarter, North Hollywood (12-3, 6-0 in league play) looked to point guard Suzi Shimoyama to take control of the clock and Van Nuys (13-2, 4-1) got no closer than seven points.

Shimoyama, who has signed to attend Cal, finished with 12 points, 11 assists and five steals.

“We really pushed up our defensive intensity in the second half,” Shimoyama said. “Our play on defense helped us get our offense going.”

Defensive pressure forced Van Nuys into 28 turnovers, 17 in the second half.

“The turnovers were the ballgame,” Van Nuys Coach Tony Magnante said. “You can’t keep throwing the ball away against a good team and expect to win. But you’ve got to give (the Huskies) credit. They made us throw it away.”

Van Nuys fell behind, 15-7, after one quarter as North Hollywood took advantage of the boards in an 11-2 run.

But the Wolves got back into the game when 6-foot-2 center Cicely Brewster checked into the lineup in the second quarter. Brewster missed the first period because of a dental appointment but made up for it by scoring 13 points.

Magnante said that fatigue played a factor in Van Nuys’ second-half struggle. “I’ve only got eight girls to begin with and it didn’t help when we didn’t have (Cicely) in the first quarter,” he said.

Jenny Chi added 12 points for the Wolves.