Alemany Keeping Its Focus : Girls’ basketball: Despite slew of distractions, Indians (30-0) can play for state title--if they beat Woodbridge (31-0).

Highlights from Alemany High’s season on the brink:

-- The coach gave birth to her first child early in the season.

-- Earthquake damage forced closure of the school and its gym.

-- A knee injury ended the senior season of key guard Kathy Brown more than a month ago.

-- On the eve of the team’s biggest game, the coach had to scramble to find a practice site. She forgot to secure a gym because she had been so focused on the previous night’s playoff game.

Distractions? Team Tumult has boxed them out. The Indians have won all 30 of their games, the Southern Section Division II-A championship and are one game away from the state final.

So what’s it all worth?

Depends when you asked.

“If we lose one game between here and the state final, it’s like we’ve fallen short,” Coach Melissa Hearlihy said a week ago.

Great expectations. Now, only one game--the Division II Southern Regional State final against Irvine Woodbridge at 1:30 today at Anaheim Arena separates the Indians from their stated goal of playing in Friday’s state championship game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

But, Hearlihy amended Friday, the Woodbridge game will not make or break the season. She was not selling short her team’s goal but appreciating a season defined as much by its difficulties as its accomplishments.

“We’ve gone through a baby, we’ve gone through an earthquake,” she said. “To make it to the final four in the state. . . . There’s a lot . . . we’re going to be able to list as positive things that happened over the course of the year.

“From this point on, we just want to play well. We want to finish the season peaking, and play like we did Thursday night (in a 68-51 victory over Mission Bay). That was probably our best game of the season.”

In that game, Alemany center Carly Funicello illustrated how dominating she can be, scoring a personal-best 30 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Her teammates, senior forward Zevette Mitchell (average of 10 points a game) and junior guard Kelly McKay (12 points) are unsung but key players.

Still, Alemany revolves around Samantha Rigley (17-point average), a junior forward who sometimes plays like a point guard. She is the team’s emotional fulcrum. Her attitude and refusal to lose are as important as her passing and three-point shooting.

“Even in her bad games, she leads us in other areas besides shooting,” Hearlihy said.

Rigley and Co. face their toughest opponent of the season in Woodbridge (31-0).

“They’re pretty much a mirror image of us,” Hearlihy said. “They’ve got two post players who can score and a wing player who’s quick and can shoot.”

Like Alemany, Woodbridge is a balanced team. Four Warrior starters average more than 10 points, led by guard Jamie Oenning 13.3. The others are: center Angela Burgess (12.7), forward Melanie Pearson (11.4) and guard Erin Stovall (11.1).

Both teams had only one day to prepare for each other, and for Alemany, it didn’t go quite as planned. Hearlihy had to call several schools to secure a gym for a Friday evening practice.

“I was so worried about (Thursday’s game), I forgot to get a gym,” she said with a laugh.

The Indians settled on Bell-Jeff. Their thoughts, however, were on Anaheim.

“Going to (Anaheim) is all everyone can talk about today,” Hearlihy said. “I just hope it doesn’t cloud our focus of what we want to do.”

She shouldn’t be too worried. If a 6.8 earthquake can’t do it, a trip to the newest Disney creation doesn’t have much chance.