Ladycats Hope Killer Schedule Will Make Them Stronger

In a nine-day period, the top-ranked Brea Olinda girls’ basketball team played five opponents that entered the season ranked in the top 15 nationally by one publication. The Ladycats went 1-4 in those games.

“The only game we played poorly was against [San Jose Archbishop] Mitty,” said Brea Coach Jeff Sink of his team’s 63-40 loss. “Either we scheduled very poorly, or we scheduled effectively and it will make us tough later. The problem we have right now is playing 32 minutes against that elite level of competition.”

The two-time defending state champion Ladycats, now 8-4, haven’t lost more than five games in a season since 1981 when they finished 12-9.

“It will either kill us and we’ll be demoralized because Brea hasn’t lost three games in a row in God knows how long,” Sink said. “Or it will rejuvenate us and take a team that was bored and underachieving and inspire them to have a great last two-thirds of the season. I’m betting it’s the latter. I think it will pay off for us, but it will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out.”

Brea is the county’s only top 10 team not playing this week. It was originally supposed to play in a national-caliber tournament in Arizona this week, but it fell through.

“They expected to get funding and it either completely folded or it’s just local--they kept a lot of people on the string for a long time,” Sink said. “As it turns out,it would have been more fun to not play the Rancho Grande tournament and instead play at Edison [at the Orange County Championships]. If I had known things weren’t going to work out. . . . [Edison Coach Dave White] held a spot as long as he could. If we possibly can, we’ll play next year.”

SCHEDULE CHANGE

The Mater Dei boys’ basketball game against Fontana, originally scheduled for New Year’s Day, has been moved to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 8 at Ocean View High.

ON THE ROAD (AGAIN)

The Irvine girls’ team is off to a 14-0 start, and the Vaqueros have done it all on the road. They will not have a home game until Jan. 8, when they play Santa Margarita.

TWO-PERSON GAME

One of the most overlooked players in Orange County has been Valencia’s Monika Jackley. With the arrival of transfer Michelle Pietka from Troy, the Tigers have two very good scorers.

“I played [on a] club [team] with Monika my sophomore year, but that was the last time I played with her,” Pietka said. “She’s good. I’m lucky that she’s here.”

Jackley is averaging 23 points and Pietka 20, and combined they are outscoring Tiger opponents, who are averaging 41.3.

GOLDEN STRUGGLES

Three girls’ teams from the Golden West League, Tustin, Ocean View and Santa Ana, were a combined 1-24 going into the week, and none had yet defeated a varsity team; Tustin’s victory was over the El Toro junior varsity.

DOUBLE DUTY

San Clemente’s Whitney Jones played two soccer games at the Excalibur Tournament on Monday, then played a girls’ basketball game against sixth-ranked Troy on Monday night.

Jones, a starter, did nothing in the first quarter but finished with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds for the fifth-ranked Tritons in a 68-51 loss.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

While the Tournament of Champions was taking place in Santa Barbara, the 12-team Los Alamitos Varsity Tournament of Champions was being held in Orange County. It included two junior varsity teams and six varsity girls’ teams with losing records.

Could be time for a name change.

VERY UPSET

El Toro girls’ basketball Coach Vincent Avitabile admitted that he had never been so upset at the end of a game as he was at the end of Foothill’s 56-55 victory over the Chargers on Monday after referees failed to acknowledge loud and repeated requests for a timeout in the final seven seconds.

“That’s the most frustrated I’ve ever been,” he said. “Two players and me are screaming for a timeout, and the referee says he didn’t hear? I know they’re not used to [coaches calling timeouts], but if that’s the rule, the referees have to be aware of the situation. Foothill played good defense on our inbounds play and we wanted to call timeout and take the ball out again.”

Instead, the seconds ticked away and the third-ranked Chargers went down to defeat.

BALANCE, BALANCE

Though the field isn’t as strong as the Orange County Championship, the Costa Mesa Winter Classic girls’ tournament has had some close games. Three of its eight games on Tuesday were decided in overtime and another was decided by two points.

The surprise of the tournament? Mission Viejo, which knocked off Westminster in the second round, 61-57, in overtime, naturally.

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Eric Maddy and staff writer Ben Bolch contributed to this report.

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