12-Year-Old Plan Pays Off for Brea : Championship game: Ladycats’ Colleen Hudson, guarding Bella Vista’s Amy Smith one-on-one, holds the center to 11 points.

The idea came from a game that Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh saw 12 years ago. Executing the plan was another story.

Trakh recalled a game in the 1981 Division 3-A semifinals between La Quinta, which was led by scoring sensation Johnny Rogers, and defensive-minded Corona del Mar.

“I always like telling stories about old games and the plays or exploits that won the games,” said Trakh. “I remember Corona del Mar Coach Jack Errion saying his team was going to play Rogers straight up and man him defensively. Everybody thought Jack was crazy.”

Corona del Mar’s Mark Spinn got the defensive assignment that night and held Rogers to six points, or 32 below his playoff scoring average. Spinn’s defensive effort left an impression on Trakh.

Twelve years later, Trakh assigned the job of guarding Fair Oaks Bella Vista’s high-scoring center, Amy Smith, to his junior center, Colleen Hudson, in the State Division II championship game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

“I kept telling Colleen Hudson all week long that she could guard Amy,” Trakh said. “I kept telling her, ‘I saw Mark Spinn do it, and you can do it too.’ I saw it happen.”

Well, history repeated itself Saturday. Hudson held Smith to 11 points, or 12 points under her season average, in a 42-41 victory.

Smith, a 6-foot-3 center who has signed with UC Santa Barbara, made five of 14 shots and rarely got a high-percentage shot.

“It was one of my biggest challenges, but I thought I could do it,” Hudson said. “The important thing was to deny her position. She’s a strong player, so I just tried to keep her out of the paint (key).”

Smith managed only one point in the decisive fourth quarter when Brea overcame a 34-30 deficit. The Ladycats won the game on Nicole Erickson’s 12-foot shot with 3.5 seconds remaining. But Hudson contributed a big defensive play 35 seconds earlier.

The Ladycats were clinging to a 40-39 lead when Smith got inside position and guard Danica Holmlund bounced a perfect pass to her. But when Smith tried a four-foot shot, Hudson was there to block it.

“The lucky part is that I didn’t get called for a foul,” Hudson said. “But then, I didn’t foul her.”

While that may be debatable, Erickson said there was no doubt about the role Hudson played in the Ladycats’ victory.

“Colleen did an awesome job on Smith,” Erickson said. “She’s (Smith) a couple of inches taller and has those long arms, so she’s tough inside. But I thought the key to the game was the way Colleen focused on Smith defensively.

“There are times when the shots aren’t going to fall, but good defense will always win games. I thought we played excellent defense and a lot of credit should go to Colleen.”