CENTURY LEAGUE GIRLS’ ROUNDUP : Villa Park Now Alone in First Place

The smile on the face of Villa Park Coach Len Whitacre was understandable, considering his girls’ basketball team had just beaten visiting Canyon, 51-43, Thursday to gain sole possession of first place in the Century League.

However, the tie around his neck was another story.

“See this tie?” Whitacre said. “See the pigs on this tie? I’m wearing this tie because we want to be pigs. I know (Canyon) doesn’t want to share the league title, and neither do we.”

By beating Canyon (11-7, 4-1 in league) in the teams’ first meeting of the season, the Spartans are hoping to avoid a repeat of last season, when it took a victory by Villa Park in the last league game to keep Canyon from a share of the title.

“This was a very intense game,” Whitacre said. “They matched up real well with us, and plus they’ve improved a lot in the past couple weeks.”

The Comanches took a 9-2 lead, but Villa Park (17-2, 5-0) battled back, outscoring Canyon, 15-4, in the second quarter, and taking a 25-17 lead at halftime.

“We came out very tentative,” Whitacre said. “Every game we seem to come out like this and I don’t understand it.”

Despite the efforts of Canyon’s Robyn Kuhlman, the Comanches were unable to gain any ground in the second half.

Kuhlman scored 12 points in the half, and finished with a game-high 20.

Committing 24 turnovers and shooting only one free throw turned out to be Canyon’s downfall.

“It was real important for us to stay between Kuhlman and the basket, and that’s why we stayed out of foul trouble,” Whitacre said. “Sooner or later our pressure will get to people, and it did tonight in the second and third quarter.”

Maureen Skehan led the Spartans with 16 points, and Michelle Miyake finished with 10.

In other league games:

El Modena 57, Foothill 25--Jamie Shine had 14 points and Nora Mariner had 11 rebounds for visiting El Modena (7-9, 3-2). Karen Herco added 10 points for El Modena.

Orange 45, Santa Ana Valley 43 (OT)--Velina Gibson of Santa Ana Valley made a three-pointer in the last 40 seconds of overtime, but Orange was able to hold on for the victory. Shannon Strini, who had nine points and 12 rebounds for Orange (4-12, 1-4), made a three-pointer with seconds left to send the game into overtime.