GIRLS’ BASKETBALL / SUNSET LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Fountain Valley Spreads It Out, Wins

It’s not enough that Fountain Valley is blessed with Jennifer Ludwicki and Nicole Strange. Now it looks as though the Barons are going the diversification route.

Getting double-digit scoring from three players, and more than eight points apiece from three others, fifth-ranked Fountain Valley scored a 73-63 Sunset League road victory Tuesday over eighth-ranked Edison.

Ludwicki got her points, scoring 26, with seven rebounds and three blocked shots. And Strange did her part with 11 points and eight rebounds. But it was the efforts of their teammates that killed the Chargers (12-3, 1-1 in league).

Reserve Jocelyn Tu nailed three three-point baskets--including in a row to open the second quarter--to give Fountain Valley (13-5, 2-0) its largest lead, 14 points. Heather Basco was five-for-nine shooting and scored all her 11 points in the first half as Fountain Valley built a 36-23 halftime lead. Erin Avila scored eight points, four in the first quarter, and four in the fourth. Saki Takemoto scored eight points.

Six players, 73 points.

“The defense has to adjust,” Barons Coach Carol Strausburg said. “When everyone is involved (in the scoring) it changes what our opponents have to do.”

Of course, it helps to shoot 62% from the field (16 of 26), which Fountain Valley did in the first half. It finished shooting 43%.

Edison shot only 25% in the first half to dig its hole. The Chargers made only five of their first 30 shots (17%) before catching fire near the end of the half. The closest they came was 48-40.

Edison’s Marie Philman scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, but was limited to seven points in the first half as Strange and Ludwicki took turns guarding her.

“We didn’t come out to play the first quarter, we were sluggish,” Philman said of her team’s 16-8 first-quarter deficit. “They scored a few and caught us off guard. We were just never in sync.”

And there’s no room for that in a league that has four of the county’s top 10 teams in it. Edison, coming off a victory over ninth-ranked Esperanza, plays at Los Alamitos (6-9, 0-1) on Thursday; Fountain Valley plays at fourth-ranked Marina.

In another league game:

Marina 82, Huntington Beach 65--Sonya Bryant had eight steals and 19 points for visiting Marina (13-2, 2-0), which had 21 steals. Reserve Casie Eury scored a career-high 15 points and Shandy Robbins added 15 points and 18 rebounds for the Vikings. Huntington Beach is 10-6, 0-2.