CENTURY LEAGUE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Three-Pointers Help Villa Park Top El Modena
As Michelle Miyake sat in the quiet of Villa Park’s team room Thursday night, she recalled the anguish she felt as she watched much of the third quarter from the bench because of foul trouble.
“I hated watching it and not being able to do anything,” she said. “When I went in in the fourth quarter, I went in confident and knew I had to do my thing.”
Her “thing” is shooting the three-point basket, and after El Modena pulled to within four points, Miyake buried two three-pointers in the final 2 minutes 25 seconds to help Villa Park hold off the Vanguards, 48-36, in a Century League showdown.
It pitted last year’s champion, Villa Park (13-2, 1-0), against the team that had won the title the previous two years, El Modena (4-8, 0-1).
The Vanguards had won three of their last four games, including a one-point loss to eighth-ranked Edison, which it led by six in the fourth quarter.
“This was critical for us,” Villa Park Coach Len Whitacre said. “There are two teams we have a fear of, Canyon and El Modena; we see a lot of matchup problems with them.”
But Miyake (14 points) made up for it with her long-range shooting; she had four three-pointers.
“Michelle stepped up, took a chance and killed us,” El Modena Coach John Cahill said. “That was the backbreaker, right there.”
El Modena’s problem wasn’t its defense, but its 26 turnovers.
“They put a lot of pressure on us,” Cahill said. “They’re a good team. They know how to play defense.”
Villa Park’s problem was its shooting. The Spartans made only 13 of 50 (26%), and Miyake’s three-pointers were their only field goals in the fourth quarter as El Modena cut an 11-point deficit to four with 2:57 to go.
Maureen Skehan had a game-high 18 points, despite making only one of her first 14 shots.
Mary Jo Pennington had 11 points and 12 rebounds for Villa Park.
El Modena got 13 points and six rebounds from Jamie Shine, last year’s league most valuable player.
In other league games:
Canyon 63, Santa Ana Valley 48--Sara Spjut had 20 points and Robynn Kuhlmann had 19 points for Canyon (8-6, 1-0).
Foothill 38, Orange 28--Guard Katy Steinle had 16 points for Foothill (5-9, 1-0). Foothill was 13 of 16 from the free-throw line.