SUNSET LEAGUE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL : Edison Puts It All Together in Victory

When the fifth-ranked girls’ basketball team in the county is playing the game of its season, it takes an other-worldly effort to bring it back to earth.

Alas, Edison was only human as Marina cruised to a 70-50 Sunset League victory at Edison Tuesday night.

“There aren’t many teams that could have beaten them tonight,” Edison Coach Philip Abraham said.

Marina (17-4, 10-1 in league) would have to agree. All season long, the Vikings would have a good defensive effort here, a fine shooting game there, maybe even throw in a good rebounding night. Problem was, they could never seem to put it all together in the same game.

Until Tuesday.

“Everything worked really well tonight,” said Marina’s Jessica Trippet, who had a game-high 18 points and six rebounds in three quarters of play. “We haven’t done that all year. I think this will help get us ready for playoffs.”

And everything Trippet tried worked well. Marina Coach Pete Bonny met with Trippet early in the week and urged the 6-foot-0 senior to go back to what worked for her last season.

“Jessica did a hell of a job,” he said. “I told her to do the things she did last year, go back to what worked. Do more catch and shoot.”

Plenty of Trippet’s teammates were clear on the shooting part. And it didn’t seem to matter from where. For a team that features six players 5-9 or taller, Marina was effective from long range as well as the key.

“They’re a very physical team,” Abraham said. “When you have a big team like that hitting their perimeter shots, it causes problems.”

Traci Nakamura, a 5-2 guard, doesn’t add much to Marina’s height, but she added plenty to Edison’s problems. Nakamura, who finished with 15 points, scored four of the Vikings’ six three-pointers, all in the first half.

In a particularly devastating second-quarter run, where Marina outscored Edison, 13-2, to take a 30-18 lead, Nakamura hit three from behind the three-point line.

Joan Paje scored 15 points for Edison (12-9, 6-5) and did a lot of passing to teammates Marie Philman and Leila Ryan, who scored 14 points each.

In other league games:

Huntington Beach 69, Fountain Valley 49--Clare Walker had 22 points and 16 rebounds for fourth-ranked Huntington Beach (20-3, 10-1). Deana Itow added 19 points and 12 assists for the Oilers. Nicole Strange had 11 points for Fountain Valley, which is 6-5 in league.

Santa Ana 49, Westminster 39--Cynthia Trotter and Stacy Lumluy scored 12 points each for Santa Ana.

Ocean View 58, Rosary 41--Theresa Martini scored 18 points and Tricia Lindquist had 15 for Ocean View (12-10, 6-5). Jen Chey led Rosary (5-13, 2-9) with 12 points.