EMPIRE LEAGUE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL : Cypress Gains Third Place by Defeating Los Alamitos

Two teams with realistic Empire League championship hopes at the start of the season found themselves in a strange place Tuesday night.

Instead of battling for the league title, two-time defending champion Cypress and up-and-coming Los Alamitos met to determine who would move into third place and position itself for a Southern Section playoff berth.

Cypress, looking like a team ready for the playoffs instead of a team on the bubble, took the big step with a 62-37 victory at home.

The Centurions (15-8, 6-3 in league) can clinch third place with a victory over Esperanza or a Los Alamitos loss to Katella in Thursday’s league finales.

“We wanted to be able to control our own destiny (on Thursday), and now we can,” Cypress Coach Denise Selbe said. “I think these are two evenly matched teams, but we were on tonight and finally got a game where everything went right.”

Things went right from the start for Cypress. The Centurions took a 14-2 lead late in the first quarter after a 10-0 run.

Los Alamitos (11-11, 5-4), which defeated Cypress in the first round of league play and earlier in a tournament, struggled from the field in the first half, making only six of 22 field goals. The Griffins cut the lead to 16-8 early in the second quarter, but the inside play of Cypress’ Jessica Eggleston and Julie Adams took over from there.

Eggleston, who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Adams (17 points and 10 rebounds) combined to score 14 points in the final 4 minutes 30 seconds of the half to give Cypress a 34-16 lead.

Cypress also got a lift from Anna Bozarelos, who scored 10 points and had nine rebounds.

Los Alamitos came no closer than 13 points after halftime, as Cypress did a good job beating the Griffins’ press, which hurt the Centurions in their first two meetings. Cindy Yamasaki led Los Alamitos with 16 points.

In other league games:

El Dorado 52, Esperanza 45--El Dorado (20-2, 7-2) remained in a first-place tie with Katella with the victory at home.

Katella 65, Loara 26--Chris Carrillo scored 19 points for Katella (18-4, 7-2).