SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS : DIVISION I : Huntington Beach Rolls Past Los Alamitos

That brutal struggle for the top spot in the Sunset League may have seemed like a nightmare during the regular season, but it can pay off come playoff time.

Huntington Beach cashed in Wednesday night, with a 74-44 thrashing of Los Alamitos in an opening-round Division I-A girls’ basketball playoff game at Huntington Beach High.

After the victory, Huntington Beach senior guard Clare Walker explained why she wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“There are some great teams in our league,” said Walker, who scored 19 of her 20 points in the first half and left the game for good with 3:09 left in the third quarter. “It has given us more competition.”

The Oilers (24-3), who shared a co-championship in the Sunset League with Marina, came out riled up and ready to score and soon took an 18-5 lead, which they continued to build upon.

Huntington Beach, unsatisfied with its 45-24 halftime lead, scored 20 unanswered points in the third quarter before Oiler Coach Nick Bartlett sent in the reserves. With three minutes left in the quarter, Los Alamitos, 11-13 and an at-large Empire League entry, scored the next six points.

“When you do something like that to a team, it takes something out of them,” he said. “But (Los Alamitos) didn’t give up. They came to play, and they played good man-to-man defense on us.”

But it was not nearly as good as Huntington Beach’s press defense. Seven of the Oilers’ 11 players had at least one steal.

“We have seven different defenses and three different presses,” Bartlett said. “Some I don’t think we run as well as others. I still think we could improve on defense.”

Huntington Beach would be hard-pressed to improve on offense, although Bartlett insisted the Oilers have yet to peak. Walker and Deana Itow each scored a game-high 20 points, followed by Renee Kimoto, who had 13. For Los Alamitos, Cavetra Mitchell and Jenny McCullough scored 11 points apiece.