Ninth-Ranked San Clemente Gains Final

San Clemente scored on its first six shots and never surrendered the lead to defeat Newport Harbor, 71-43, in the Bolsa Grande girls’ basketball tournament Friday night.

With the victory, the ninth-ranked Tritons won their pool and earned the right to face Westminster, a 43-36 winner over South Torrance, for the tournament title at 7:30 tonight. Tenth-ranked Newport Harbor fell to the fifth-place game.

Andrea Jacobs made three field goals, Taryn Commins two and Kelley Kruger one, which gave San Clemente a 12-2 lead.

The Tritons (5-3) used a strong full-court defense, taking Newport Harbor out of its set offense, and forced 20 turnovers in the first half to take a 37-26 lead.

“Our defense played an exceptional game,” said San Clemente Coach Mary Mulligan, who watched her Tritons limit Newport Harbor to two field goals in four tries in the second quarter and no field goals in the final quarter.

Marissa Ficklin’s three blocked shots paced the defensive effort.

Amanda Engle finished with 18 points and Kruger had 13 to lead San Clemente.

“This is the first time since I’ve had this group that we’ve beaten a ranked team,” said Mulligan, whose team’s losses have been to No. 2 Woodbridge, No. 3 Laguna Hills and No. 4 Mater Dei. “We’ve had a hard time winning a big game. We’ve been competitive, but it was like, ‘Hey, nice job, but you still lost.’ Maybe this will get us over the hump.”

Desiree Talley paced Newport Harbor (4-4) with 16 points.

In another tournament game:

Westminster 43, South Torrance 36--Erin Moore had 16 points and teammate Janet Glasby had eight points and 12 rebounds for Westminster (7-2).