GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : El Dorado Points Out Problem for Canyon

You take a look at the record and it doesn’t seem right. Canyon, which returns five starters from last year’s 15-10 team, is sitting below .500 after five games.

But Comanche Coach Nelson Herrera isn’t bothered.

“We could’ve easily scheduled cream puffs,” Herrera said. “We could’ve padded our record. We want to play tough competition to see what we have to work on.”

El Dorado, ranked seventh in The Times’ preseason top 10, scored a 55-42 victory on Wednesday over Canyon in the El Dorado Coed Classic. The Golden Hawks (4-0), who definitely don’t fit into the cream puff category, joined No. 9 Esperanza and Cerritos as teams that have shown Canyon (2-3) what it needs to work on.

Shooting is a good place to start.

The Comanches made only 16 of 56 shots from the field (28.6%), even with Robynn Kuhlmann hitting eight of 16.

But Kuhlmann and Herrera credited the El Dorado defense, especially in the second half. Kuhlmann had 14 points at halftime and finished with 19.

“It was really hard to get open,” Kuhlmann said. “Their defense was really good.”

That was mostly the doing of Kim Korsmeier and Lisa Darling. They hounded Kuhlmann in the second half, when Kuhlmann made only two of eight shots. Canyon made only six of 30 shots in the final 16 minutes.

“Shooting’s been a problem, and that’s the key,” Herrera said. “Just having games with tough teams is important. And I’ve got to give El Dorado all the credit for playing tough defense.”

El Dorado stepped up its intensity with a man-to-man defense in the second half, and a 30-26 halftime lead became a 40-28 advantage with 1 minute 56 seconds left in the third quarter.

“I think that’s something we can do; if we play hard, we can shut (individual) players down,” El Dorado Coach Gary Raya said of the Golden Hawks’ second-half effort against Kuhlmann. “We won our first three games by more than 30 points. To this point, the best team we’ve played has been ourselves in practice. We’ve only played four games, and we’ll get better the more games we play.”

Shanna Renken scored 22 points and also had six rebounds and three steals. The 5-foot-11 senior made 11 of 15 shots.

Michelle de Bruijn had 12 points, including 10 in the second half, eight rebounds and three steals for the Golden Hawks. El Dorado shot 39.3% from the floor (22 of 56).