PREP WEDNESDAY: ALL COUNTY BASKETBALL TEAMS : Erickson Sinks the Big Shots : Girls’ player of the year: Brea-Olinda guard’s clutch baskets helped the Ladycats to their fourth State title.

It wasn’t ice cream or a sudden spring storm that made Nicole Erickson want to grab a sweat shirt.

Three days after Brea-Olinda won its record-tying fourth State girls’ basketball title, Coach Mark Trakh gathered these Ladycat champions to listen to a taped radio broadcast of their 42-41 victory over Fair Oaks Bella Vista, where Erickson hit the unlikely game-winner with 3.5 seconds left.

“It sent chills down my spine,” said Erickson, who can shoot as calmly with a 30-point cushion as she can three points down with time expiring.

She did both while helping Brea win a 12th Orange League championship, a sixth Southern Section title, a fifth Southern California plaque and a fourth State crown.

Erickson, The Times’ Orange County player of the year, makes her second appearance on the All-County first-team. It is the third consecutive time that player of the year honors have gone to a Ladycat. Former teammate Jody Anton won in 1991 and ’92.

“She has not only meant a lot to this team, but to the community,” Trakh said of Erickson. “She’s a community treasure, a North Orange County legend.”

On ballots sent to area schools, several coaches returned them with specific comments about the 5-foot-7 junior point guard, who averaged 22 points, 5.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists. One simply said, “you know about her.”

Her reputation transcends county lines. Of Erickson, Carlsbad Coach John Dubreville had heard an earful before a regional semifinal and had seen an eyeful after.

“She’s the best player I’ve seen this year, maybe ever,” he said after her three-pointer against Carlsbad forced overtime, in which the Ladycats dominated.

Carlsbad’s Vanessa Nygaard, who will play at Stanford, said she wished her intensity matched Erickson’s. Erickson has her game face on long before tipoff. At the State tournament, she was the picture of concentration as her teammates and opponents chatted and joked in the hallways.

That single-mindedness is part of the reason Brea defeated Bella Vista Friday. After a lackluster first half, the tone of the game changed when Erickson came out of the locker room smoldering .

“She gets a gleam in her eyes,” Trakh said. “They’re on fire. You don’t want to mess with her when she gets that look.”

But does she have the look of the best player ever to don the Ladycats’ green and gold?

“Everyone always asks me that,” Trakh said. “What I tell them is if she can make the big shots, and (Jody) Anton and (Aimee) McDaniel were the big-shot players, she could be the best.”

Erickson started to make a case for herself at the 1992 State game, where a clutch three-pointer had championship ramifications. Then came this season’s last-gasp antics.

“I still can’t believe she made that,” Trakh said. “The pressure to win that game, in front of 10,000 people was incredible.”

Several coaches have noted Erickson’s ability to get more out of her teammates than what was there to start with.

“She yells at the kids and they take it from her,” Trakh said. “They don’t roll their eyes at her.”

All this flattery and attention is a little embarrassing for Erickson, who owes a big chunk of her progression to her father, Keith.

Said Trakh: “I wish I could take credit for her development, but I can’t. The reason she is successful is because of what her father did for her.”

Keith Erickson not only groomed her, he humbles her.

‘No matter what everyone else says, my dad puts me in my place, quick,” she said. “He keeps me down to earth.

“When I was walking away (Friday night) I was thinking about all my turnovers. . . . I don’t think I’m great. There are so many great players out there.”

None of whom she cares to emulate. Sure there have been players she has admired, but Erickson is creating her own mold.

“When I first started playing, it was Cheryl Miller,” Erickson said. “I like how Bobby Hurley plays, and Michelle Joseph of Purdue, but I want to be my own player. I want to develop my own style.”

And maybe someday the community treasure will become a national one.