Brea-Olinda Easily Advances to Finals : Basketball: Ladycats earn sixth consecutive regional title with 67-39 victory over Newport Harbor. Erickson has 14 points, 14 assists.

The question was directed to Newport Harbor Coach Shannon Jakosky: How many games would it take to get in the ballpark against Brea-Olinda?

“Three or four more games,” she responded.

And that’s just to make it close.

Newport Harbor got its second chance in a week to take on the nation’s second-ranked team, and again Brea-Olinda showed why it is one of the best high school teams in state history.

The Ladycats scored a 67-39 victory over Newport Harbor in the Southern California Division III Regional girls’ final Saturday at Anaheim Arena. The 28-point margin of victory is the smallest they have had in seven playoff games. When Brea-Olinda defeated Newport Harbor a week earlier in the Southern Section championship game, it won by 30 points, 70-40.

The victory sends Brea (32-0) to the State championship game for the sixth consecutive year. The Ladycats are vying for a state-record tying fourth consecutive State title, set by San Diego Point Loma (1983-87).

In the aftermath of Brea-Olinda’s 53rd consecutive victory, Jakosky tried to put all that Ladycat talent into perspective:

“I think it’s pretty obvious that any team that has a penetrating point guard that can pass well can be successful if they simultaneously have good outside shooters. Their inside game is about as tough as you’re going to see at the high school level and I bet that Brea-Olinda team could probably do some damage on some Division II and definitely Division III (college) school--and probably run them out of the gym.

“They keep their poise, they work hard. They don’t try to overpress,” Jakosky said. “They try to beat you on the half-court defense and half-court offense. They’re just solid all the way through, and if you make any mistakes, they’re going to capitalize on all of them. To put it in perspective, they’re all great basketball players and they have a great coaching staff.”

The penetrating point guard is Nicole Erickson, who had 14 assists and scored 14 points, including eight in the first quarter as Brea-Olinda built a 14-6 lead.

The Sailors (24-8) trailed, 17-2, after one quarter in the first meeting as Brea-Olinda scored 13 consecutive points.

On Saturday, Tina Bowman’s basket in the paint cut Brea-Olinda’s lead to 8-6 with 2 minutes 54 seconds left in the first quarter. Then Brea-Olinda scored 11 consecutive points.

Erickson scored the first four of the streak, and forward Sarah Beckley scored three of the last five.

Beckley finished with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior center Colleen Hudson scored 16 points.

A 9-2 run at the end of the second quarter made it 33-15 at halftime.

“They are so unselfish,” Jakosky said. “Erickson is a great passer. I felt we did a pretty good job of containing her, but she would get in and we would have players come to help as they needed to and Nicole would always find the open person. I was applauding her several times on some of her outstanding passes.”

Brea-Olinda will play San Jose Archbishop Mitty, a 58-57 winner over Novato Saturday in Oakland. Coach John Hattrup, who coached the Mission Viejo girls’ team to the 1982 Regional Division II championship, likes where his team is at right now.

“I think we’re playing well as a group,” he said. “Up until tonight, Lee (Moulin) has been shooting well. Kiyoko (Miller) has played as well as she’s played all year today. Nicole got her shooting back Thursday night and the big kids are playing really well. Jennifer (Saari) gives us a really good spark off the bench, not only in terms of ballhandling to get Nicole more into the offense, but she can shoot the three, she can penetrate and be a complete player. I think we’re playing really well right now.”

Saari, a freshman, scored nine points and had three steals in 13 minutes.

Moulin was 0 for 5 from the floor, but was a little dogged from a bout with the flu. She had five rebounds (second only to Beckley) to help give the Ladycats a 38-26 edge.

Newport Harbor, which turned in a much more complete performance than the first meeting, got 10 points apiece from Genevieve Evarts and Melissa Schutz.