Laguna Hills’ Inoue Is Quick, Quiet

Tamara Inoue does her work quietly and quickly.

Before you realize it, the Laguna Hills point guard has zipped a pass to a teammate for an easy basket, or sped by a surprised defender for a layup or short jumper.

And that’s the beauty of Inoue’s game, which she hopes will lead the 26-3 Hawks, the county’s top-ranked team, to the Division II-AA championship today against Cerritos Gahr.

Coach Lynn Taylor says Inoue is “the toughest one mentally on our team.”

“She gets a step and explodes,” said Woodbridge Coach Pat Quinn, who saw Inoue score 21 points in Laguna Hills’ 55-48 victory in January. “You look at her and you don’t think she moves that quickly. She lulls you to sleep, gets you rocking back and forth on your legs, and when she sees you lean forward, she is gone.”

Inoue, 17, who has a scholarship offer from California awaiting her signature April 9, considers herself a typical point guard. Although she averages 14.2 points, she thinks pass first and points second.

“For me, I think the point guard should mainly pass off to get others the open shot,” said Inoue, who averages 5.4 assists. “I try to create openings for everyone else. I really don’t care about shooting that much as passing. I like to like to drive into the lane, force the defense inward and pass out to anyone open. I’ll get my points on the fastbreak.”

Opponents should be grateful they have only one Inoue to worry about. She has a twin sister at Laguna Hills, Karine, who has a scholarship offer from Arizona State to play soccer.

“We both played soccer and I peeled off to basketball,” said Tamara, who also has two younger brothers. “We wanted to go our different ways and we’re both competitive, so we decided to play our own sports. In junior high we played basketball together, because the only soccer team was for boys. It was fun, but she leaned more toward soccer when she came here.”

Inoue has always had streak of independence. And when she first came to Laguna Hills, it sometimes got her in trouble with Taylor, who nonetheless insists the point guard position is “not for robots or idiots.”

“The two of us had differences early, but I think she understands I wanted to make her tough mentally. And she is,” Taylor said.

Even though Inoue’s abilities were immediately evident, especially her quickness, it has taken Laguna Hills four years to reach a final.

In her first two seasons, Inoue and her teammates were the Pacific Coast League punching bag. But, along with 6-6 center Tayyiba Haneef, and forward Whitney Houser, Laguna Hills solidified by Inoue’s junior season, when it won a league championship.

This season the Hawks have been nearly unstoppable.

Winning the section title would cap Laguna Hills’ season, but nothing will take away the accomplishment of Laguna Hills’ steady improvement the past four years.

“I still remember the freshman year when we were bad. Since I was a freshman my main goal has been to win a league title and go to the playoffs,” Inoue said.

“Obviously we want the championship. If we lose it will be hard even though we go on to state. [Southern Section] is what we want. But we have also come a long way.”