STATE PREP BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Title Slips From Newbury Park in Turnover Torrent : Girls’ Division III: Panthers make 31 miscues, fall to Archbishop Mitty, 64-56.

Looking at one number on the stat sheet--Archbishop Mitty High’s Kerri Walsh played only 13 minutes in the game--you’d figure Newbury Park must have beaten the Monarchs.

Well, even with its leading scorer and rebounder on the bench in foul trouble for most of the game, Mitty still beat Newbury Park, 64-56, in the State Division III girls’ championship game Saturday before about 4,000 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

But 31 turnovers undid Newbury Park’ efforts to capitalize on Walsh’s absence.

“When we got her in foul trouble, I think we were expecting to take the lead,” Newbury Park’s Kara McKeown said. “We thought things would be easier.”

It wasn’t an illogical thought, and it seemed to be correct at first.

Walsh, 6 feet 2, is the tallest player on either team. She also had a 22-point scoring average, 10 points better than the next-closest on her team, and a 17-rebound average.

Walsh, a junior who is also an All-American volleyball player, left with three fouls 31 seconds into the second quarter. Mitty (28-3) led, 18-11, at the time.

But at that moment, Newbury Park (31-2) began a 14-3 run. Jann Thorpe, who led Newbury Park with 21 points, scored 12 during that surge, which gave the Panthers a 25-21 lead.

But Newbury Park’s hex of the day--turnovers--cost it the lead before halftime. In the final 30 seconds of the half, Newbury Park turned the ball over four times off Mitty’s press and the Monarchs converted them into seven consecutive points to take a 28-25 halftime lead.

“It just wasn’t Newbury Park’s day today,” said Panther Coach Nori Parvin, whose team had a 26-game winning streak snapped in its first State championship appearance.

The Panthers were having so much trouble with Mitty’s press that it hardly mattered when Walsh picked up foul No. 4, with 5:07 to go in the third quarter.

While she was out, Newbury Park could not retake the lead, although the Panthers tied the score, 47-47, on a layup by McKeown with 6:21 to play.

But Mitty answered every Newbury Park attack and led, 54-49, with 4:01 to play when Walsh returned.

Walsh still finished with 14 points--more than one per minute--and she blocked two shots in the final four minutes. Reyna Fortenberry led Mitty with 18 points and Lisa McGhee scored 15, 10 above her average.

Mitty seemed prepared to play without Walsh, its only dominant inside player.

Mitty Coach Sue Phillips-Chargin knew that her team was at a height disadvantage. Even with Walsh, the Monarchs were short at four positions. In preparation for that, she had her team practice during the week against players from the Mitty boys’ team.

Other than Thorpe’s burst in the second quarter, Newbury Park had trouble generating of consistent offense, primarily because it had trouble just getting the ball over the half-court line.

McKeown scored 12 points and led the Panthers with 12 rebounds.

“We were real conscious about her going into the game,” Phillips-Chargin said. “If she was going to have the ball, we wanted her to have it in transition where she wasn’t real comfortable.”

Julie Wastell, the third member of Newbury Park’s scoring trio, was held to three points.

Perhaps a factor for Mitty was that it returned four starters from last year’s team, which lost to Brea Olinda in the State final.

“They had a mission,” Parvin said.