Buena Lets Big One Off the Hook, 49-47

Losses don’t come easy at Buena High, where the girls’ basketball team has dropped only 65 games in 25 seasons under Coach Joe Vaughan.

Tuesday night’s loss at UC Santa Barbara was especially difficult.

One quarter away from upsetting the nation’s No. 4-ranked team, Buena squandered a seemingly comfortable lead and lost to Copperas Cove, Tex., 49-47, in the third-place game of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions National Championship Division.

“This loss is tough,” said guard Courtney Young, who scored 15 points. “We really thought we were going to win this game.”

The No. 12-ranked Bulldogs (7-3) led, 35-23, midway through the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter leading, 39-32.

But turnovers on their first five possessions of the quarter and Purdue-bound forward Shereka Wright made them pay dearly.

Wright scored nine consecutive points for a 41-39 lead and finished with 15 of Copperas Cove’s 17 fourth-quarter points.

Wright, who finished with 29 points and seven rebounds, made two free throws with six seconds left to break a 47-47 tie.

Kelly Greathouse, who scored Buena’s last six points, had a chance to tie it, but her 11-footer lipped out at the buzzer.

Greathouse finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Lauren Sargent added nine points, all on three-point baskets.

Buena took an 18-6 first-quarter lead, jumping on a flat Copperas Cove team that lost a tough 61-57 semifinal Monday night to top-ranked Harbor City Narbonne.

Narbonne defeated Canyon, Tex., 54-52, in the final.

“We didn’t have any emotion in the first quarter, but we were able to hang in there until we could pull it off,” said Coach Skip Townsend of Copperas Cove (11-1), the 1998 tournament champion.

No other tournament in the country can match the 16-team National Championship bracket, which featured 13 of the nation’s top 22 teams.

How tough was it?

Late Tuesday night, defending state Division I champion San Jose Archbishop Mitty was playing state Division II champion Brea Olinda for seventh place.

* In other tournament games:

Ventura 60, Redondo Union 49--Alex Gientke scored 23 points and Kristine Gleisberg added 12 for the top-seeded Cougars (7-0) in a California Large Schools Division semifinal at Santa Barbara High.

Ventura plays Esperanza, a 70-52 winner over Huntington Beach Edison, at 2 p.m. today at the UC Santa Barbara Events Center.

Clovis West 61, Palmdale 28--The Falcons (5-5) couldn’t match Central Section power Clovis West in a California Large Schools Division consolation game.

Chatsworth 47, Bishop Diego 32--Liz Sun had 19 points and 13 rebounds and Lindsey Eichler had 10 rebounds for Chatsworth (8-3) in a consolation semifinal of the California Small Schools Division at Dos Pueblos High.