SEA VIEW LEAGUE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL : Playing It By the Numbers, Woodbridge Wins Easily

If Woodbridge had any doubts that there is safety in numbers, they were washed away Tuesday night in a Sea View League girls’ basketball game at Woodbridge.

Corona del Mar looked to one player for its offensive punch. Woodbridge, however, had many options, and the Warriors took advantage of them in a 57-40 victory.

“Our styles are a lot different,” Woodbridge Coach Eric Bangs said. “They rely on Molly (Flint) and we kept her about 10 points under her average. We, on the other hand, have a few players who will score about 10 points each.”

Flint, the county’s leading scorer with a 26.6 average going into the game, was held to 17 points, 14 of which she scored in the first half, which ended with Corona del Mar trailing, 29-26.

But Woodbridge’s pressure defense forced Flint into taking poor shots after halftime, and when Flint’s shooting went cold, her teammates followed her lead. The Sea Kings had only four points in the third quarter.

“I don’t know what happened in the second half,” Corona del Mar Coach Garth Flint said. “I think their press slowed us down and then we got cold offensively.”

And Woodbridge was just warming up. The Warriors (14-5, 7-1) sent center Angela Burgess and forward Nicole Quinn inside, where they outrebounded the Sea Kings and did much of their scoring. Quinn finished with a game-high 18 points and Burgess had 17 points and 14 rebounds.

“Our teamwork was better tonight,” said Quinn, who was 10 of 13 from the free-throw line. “The whole team stepped up.”

Corona del Mar (10-7, 3-5) made a brief run in the fourth quarter. Down, 49-32, the Sea Kings pulled to 49-38 before the Warriors’ Melanie Pearson went on the counterattack with a three-point play.

The game marked the return of Woodbridge guard Flo Luppani, a Times’ all-county player last season. Luppani was out six weeks because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury to her knee.

In other league games:

Newport Harbor 60, Saddleback 31--Michaela Ross, Gina Ross and Mandy Clayton each had 13 points for Newport Harbor (13-5, 8-0).

Tustin 71, Irvine 51--Sarah Davis scored her game-high 22 points in the first half to lead Tustin (8-10, 4-4), which also got 17 points from Katie Scheuerman. Irvine (2-13, 1-7).