Warriors Make Most of Mater Dei’s Misses

The major selling point of Saturday’s Nike Extravaganza II girls’ basketball game was that both teams were the defending state champions in their divisions.

But the game itself was decidedly unchampion-like, though Woodbridge was happy with its 58-49 victory over Mater Dei at the Bren Center.

Woodbridge (17-4), ranked third in the county, committed 17 turnovers in the first half and went into halftime tied.

The only thing Mater Dei seemed to be able to shoot was its foot. And in the end, that decided the outcome as the fourth-ranked Monarchs (14-6) fell.

Woodbridge finished with 27 turnovers. Mater Dei made only 19 of 58 field-goal attempts, blowing a nine-point lead in the process.

“We let them hang around, and they’re too good a team to let hang around,” Mater Dei Coach Mary Hauser said. “You don’t let good teams hang around.”

When Mater Dei had a chance to bury Woodbridge, taking a 20-11 lead with 4 minutes 19 seconds left in the second quarter, the Monarchs lost their shovel. Instead, they were outscored, 49-29, the rest of the way.

“We were just playing sloppy,” senior forward Krissy Duperron said of Woodbridge’s slow start. “It was a big game, it was [at] UC Irvine. I think a lot of people felt uncomfortable.”

Duperron had only one of Woodbridge’s 13 shots in the first half (the Warriors made six). Though Mater Dei took 26 shots, it had only two more field goals.

“We didn’t put the shots down,” Hauser said. “In the second half, [Woodbridge] played good sagging man-to-man defense and forced us to beat them outside.”

The Monarchs couldn’t do it. They missed all seven of their attempts from the three-point arc. Worse, they were two of 13 from the field in the third quarter as Woodbridge, behind Cathy Joens’ 10 points, took a 36-29 lead.

Duperron (15 points, 12 rebounds), Debby Caine (10 points) and Nicole Roberts (13 points) were four for four from the free-throw line as Woodbridge went 12 for 12 in the final quarter. The Warriors finished 22 of 27 from the free-throw line, and were 18 of 34 from the field (53%).

Woodbridge led, 28-27, in the third quarter when Joens hit two free throws and Duperron followed with consecutive baskets. The seven-point lead remained fairly consistent after that. Mater Dei was mired in a one-for-11 shooting slump at that point.

Duperron and Joens were nine of 11 shooting in the second half. Woodbridge Coach Pat Quinn credited Caine, whose outside shooting created more room under the basket.

Mater Dei had only one player score in double figures--Tina Garcia, who scored 22, had 12 rebounds and eight steals.