Brea Plays Its Best to Defeat Top Team

For the first time this season, top-ranked Brea Olinda played with fear. Coaches and players didn’t call it that. They said it was the knowledge they could lose if they didn’t play well.

Semantics aside, Brea Olinda played perhaps its best game in the past three seasons, defeating Los Angeles Washington, 66-45, Saturday in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions.

“It’s right up there,” said Ladycats’ Rochelle Anthony, adding that the only games rivaling Saturday’s victory were back-to-back victories over nationally ranked teams at this tournament two years ago.

Washington had four starters back from last year’s City Section 4-A champion, and Brea Olinda wasted no time in trying to put as much distance between it and Washington.

The Ladycats, outsized and needing to shoot well to win, made eight of its first 11 field goals to take a 17-6 lead after one quarter. They made 15 of 27 shots in the first half to take a 35-14 lead.

Junior reserve Erin Kelly scored 11 second-quarter points as Brea Olinda beat Washington’s press, scoring 11 consecutive points; Kelly had seven of them.

But the heroes may well have been post players Stephanie Wettlin (16 points, nine rebounds, five blocks) and Anthony (18 points, 14 rebounds), whose rebound effort was Herculean.

“This was the first game we played with any real emotion,” Brea Olinda Coach Jeff Sink said. “This is our best win of the year--it’s not even comparable.”

Washington (7-1) beat Laguna Hills, 49-36, in the quarterfinals.

Brea Olinda (7-0) will play defending North Coast Section champion Berkeley (9-0) in Monday’s championship game.

In other games:

Woodbridge 61, Palmdale 48--Krissy Duperron scored six of her team-high 17 points during a 6-2 run to open the second quarter and give Woodbridge (6-1), ranked second in the county, an insurmountable eight-point lead. Palmdale, ranked 14th in the state, cut the lead to four points in the final seconds of the third quarter, but Cathy Joens (16 points) scored, and Duperron scored five straight to push the lead to 11.

Woodbridge plays Laguna Hills on Monday for fifth place.

Laguna Hills 64, La Crescenta Crescenta Valley 50--Tayyiba Haneef had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the third-ranked Hawks (6-2). Tamara Inoue had 10 points and 10 assists, and Whitney Houser had a team-high 23 points.

Palos Verdes Peninsula 47, Capistrano Valley 46--Peninsula outscored sixth-ranked Capistrano Valley (5-3) in the fourth quarter, 11-2. Jenny Jennings scored 21 points, all on three-pointers, before fouling out midway in the fourth quarter for the Cougars. Peninsula made nine of 28 free throws; Capistrano Valley didn’t get a single free-throw attempt.