Buena Falls to a Giant Slayer

The only thing more surprising than the outcome of San Clemente High’s upset of Buena Tuesday night was the margin of victory.

The Tritons, who lost eight games during the regular season and had a difficult path to the Southern Section Division I-A girls’ basketball final, stunned No. 4-seeded Buena, 55-39, in a semifinal at Capistrano Valley High.

San Clemente (23-8) will play for the section championship Friday or Saturday at the Pyramid in Long Beach.

The Tritons will play the winner of tonight’s other semifinal, between Moreno Valley and Mater Dei.

Buena (24-4), which was shooting for its 14th appearance in a final and its seventh section title, fell short of a championship game for the second year in a row. Last year, they were beaten by Huntington Beach Marina, the eventual champion, in a semifinal.

This year, they went down to a longshot.

“It’s unexplainable,” said San Clemente’s Colleen Turnbull, who scored 20 points--15 in the second half.

“At the beginning of the season, I never thought we could be here.”

It would have been hard to imagine two weeks ago, too. But San Clemente defeated Fullerton Troy, the section’s only previously unbeaten large-school team; Riverside J.W. North, the top-seeded team; and Buena, which has one of the most successful programs in state history.

And the Tritons did it easily, forcing 24 turnovers and, in the third quarter, holding Buena without a field goal to extend its 23-14 halftime lead to 41-26.

“They played pretty tough defense and really worked for position,” said Buena’s 6-foot-2 freshman center, Courtney LaVere.

LaVere scored five points--eight under her average. “They were really tough, really aggressive,” she said.

And really quick, which prevented Buena from exploiting its height advantage.

Kelly Greathouse, Buena’s 6-2 sophomore center, scored 15 points--but 10 came in an inconsequential fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs went into the final period trailing by 15 points--significant because they hadn’t scored more than 12 points in any of the first three quarters.

San Clemente’s defense was sparked by Whitney Jones, who had 11 points and two steals. Cassie Kruger had four points and four steals.

Debby Caine, who averaged 16.5 points in San Clemente’s two previous playoff upsets, scored only four points but had 10 assists.

“I felt we would have a lot of trouble in the post,” said Turnbull, who has a team-high seven rebounds.

But that trouble hardly surfaced. Greathouse managed only one shot in the first half and finished three for six from the field; LaVere made her first two shots, and missed her final four.

“We wanted to get out on the wings so that pass [to the post] was a long pass,” San Clemente Coach Mary Mulligan said. “We executed really well.

“We’re really coming around right now defensively.”