Muir Holds On and Gets Drop on Alemany, 45-41

Alemany High committed 31 turnovers Saturday and a Southern Section girls’ basketball championship slipped through its hands.

But a more disturbing fact in the 45-41 setback to Pasadena Muir in a Division III-AA game before an estimated 800 fans at the Pyramid is that the Mustangs turned the ball over 30 times.

“Offensively, we killed ourselves,” Alemany Coach Melissa Hearlihy said. “If we don’t turn the ball over so much, we win.”

The Indians (23-5) were playing in their fifth title game in six years but were as nervous as a team making its first playoff appearance.

Muir (22-7) was also a little tight and understandably so. The Mustangs lost championship games the last two seasons.

Alemany held a 22-18 lead at halftime.

Muir took control in the second half and twice led by eight points, including a 37-29 advantage early in the fourth quarter.

But guard Kelli Kobayashi kept the Indians close with her 19 points, which included three three-point shots.

The 5-foot-1 junior made a three-pointer, cutting the margin to 37-33. Twice within the next five minutes, Kobayashi trimmed a four-point deficit to two with a steal and a layup.

“If we came in with a different attitude, we would have given them a better game and maybe won,” she said.

But Kobayashi and her teammates never got over the jitters.

Alemany trailed, 43-41, but missed three shots and a one-and-one free throw in the final 80 seconds.

With 14 seconds left, Muir guard Farrah Wheeler made two free throws, her only points, to make it 45-41.

Julie Mullins’ eight footer from the baseline was blocked by 5-10 Tiana Sanders of Muir and the game was over.

“I just couldn’t let her get that easy shot, you know?” said Sanders, who had 14 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Hearlihy’s game plan was to work for high-percentage shots under the basket, but the Indians appeared to be timid against Sanders and Charel Bailey, a 6-1 center who had 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

“We were scared at how big they were,” Kobayashi said. “We were scared to throw it in there.”

The Mustangs were pretty harmless in the first half. They made only eight of 35 shots, most of them from in close.

But Alemany couldn’t even relax at the free-throw line to build any kind of a halftime cushion. They made only four of 11.

“A back-breaker,” Hearlihy said.

Hearlihy’s worst fear materialized in the third quarter.

Alemany opened with four turnovers. Muir started with an 8-0 run and closed with a 9-0 run.

The Mustangs outscored the Indians, 17-7, in the quarter while making eight of 14 shots.

“I felt we were very tentative,” Hearlihy said.

“But hey, there’s a lot of people that want to be here today that didn’t make it.”