ORANGE COUNTY ALL-STAR GIRLS’ BASKETBALL : Flint’s Talent Helps Her Stand Tall

You can’t talk about girls’ basketball this season in Orange County without mentioning the names DiCamilli, Ross, Walker and White.

Yet none of them led the county in scoring. That honor went to a diminutive guard on a team that didn’t even make the playoffs, and Mollie Flint sees today’s Orange County All-Star Game at Orange Coast College (4 p.m.) as a way to show that basketball isn’t always a big girl’s game.

Flint, a 5-foot-4 1/2 shooting terror, has been the most surprising player on the South’s 12-girl squad. Coach Shannon Jakosky said Flint definitely belongs on the court with the county’s best.

“She’s better than we expected,” said Jakosky, the coach at Newport Harbor whose team faced Flint twice a season in the Sea View League. “I knew what she could do in a limited sense--of course she can shoot the ball and she’s a great competitor--but her passing, her ballhandling and her judgment are terrific. She’s one of the better perimeter defenders, with her quickness. She’s done a good job (in practice) of stopping breaks on inception, and picking up full court when she should.

“We were just thrilled. She’s playing well and she’s playing an overall game, which you maybe didn’t see sometimes on her high school team because pretty much everything was focused on her.”

Flint averaged 27.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists for Corona del Mar.

The Sea Kings tied for fourth in the eight-team Sea View League, but lost a playoff for the league’s final playoff spot. That was difficult, because the team thought it had secured a playoff spot. Flint’s final game came and went and she never knew it until a day later.

She has a 4.2 grade-point average, but hasn’t received a basketball scholarship offer. Her college applications have been accepted by Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College, St. Mary’s and Claremont-McKenna.

She leaves after the game on a whirlwind visit to the East Coast.

“I can’t get a scholarship--I realize that,” Flint said. “People say it’s because of my height. I think I’m going to have to prove myself, basically.

“Hopefully I can go (to college), try out for the team, make the team and maybe earn a scholarship and prove that I can overcome my height. My main goal is to play. I sent the colleges tapes and said, ‘Please evaluate me honestly where I would fit on your team.’ And if they don’t want me, I can accept that. But I’m going to play wherever I go.

“(A good performance) is very important for me. Maybe that opportunity (to impress a college scout) will come. I don’t know--hopefully there might be someone out there who will see me--but I’m going to do whatever I can.”

And she hopes to make Flint a name worth talking about.