Capistrano Valley Christian Falls

Capistrano Valley Christian woke up early Saturday for its 9:30 a.m. championship game in the Southern Section Division V-AA girls’ basketball playoffs at the Pyramid.

Covina Western Christian made it a rude awakening.

Lancer junior Charlene Simril made five three-pointers and scored 17 of her 19 points in the first quarter to help Western Christian take an early 10-point lead before hanging on for a 60-49 victory.

Simril’s fifth three-pointer of the first quarter gave Western Christian a 23-8 lead with 48 seconds remaining in the period and the Lancers (22-4) were on their way to their first section title.

“That was the best quarter I’ve seen from Charlene,” Western Christian Coach Adam Bartholomew said. “We got here at 8:30 this morning and shot around for 20-25 minutes before the game.

“I wanted to make sure Charlene got used to it.”

Capistrano Valley Christian, in its first section final, was just getting used to the idea of playing for a championship.

“I think our team was just happy to keep advancing,” Eagle first-year Coach Lisa Gray said. “Western Christian was on a quest to win.

“We had millions of opportunities today, but the shots weren’t falling.”

Capistrano Valley Christian shot a miserable 28% from the field (15 of 53) and only made 17 of 32 free throws. Although the Eagles’ pressure defense forced 29 turnovers, they couldn’t muster enough offense to close the gap to fewer than eight points.

“We’ve always been able to come back,” Capistrano Valley Christian senior Hayley Hall said. “But today, we didn’t play our best.”

Still, the Eagle game plan took shape.

Capistrano Valley Christian attacked Western Christian’s zone defense with Hall and Gini Joy Carney (14 points) penetrating and reserve April Flanagan (10 points) scoring from the perimeter.

The Eagles also sent Simril and All-Section center Jenni Meister (12 points) to the bench with foul trouble. In fact, both players fouled out in the fourth quarter and spent 40% of the game on the bench.

When both Simril and Meister went to the bench at the end of the second quarter, the Eagles went on a 9-0 run over the final 1 minute 49 seconds of the first half to close to within 36-26.

In the fourth quarter, Meister fouled out with 5:26 remaining and Simril exited with her fifth foul with 4:05 remaining.

Hall made a pair of free throws after Simril’s fifth foul to bring Capistrano Valley Christian within 48-40, but the Lancers’ supporting cast responded.

Reserve center Jessica Talebi scored two baskets inside and Jennifer Dyche added another layup to push the lead to 14 with three minutes remaining. Freshman guard Jenny Tseng made four free throws in the final minute to help seal the victory.

“When Charlene and Jenni fouled out, I told everyone else they had to step up,” Bartholomew said.

Said Gray: “Western Christian is the better team and they showed that today. But we’ve beaten teams that are better than us throughout the playoffs.

“Maybe we were a little undisciplined, maybe we panicked instead of playing our game. But we’re scrappy and kept after it though no one was on tonight. They hit the shots, and we didn’t.”