Peninsula’s Pressure Defense Slows Down El Toro

El Toro’s high-octane offense wasn’t running on all cylinders in the Southern Section Division I-AA girls’ basketball final at Long Beach State’s Pyramid Saturday.

So Palos Verdes Peninsula took advantage of that opportunity and won its third title in the past four seasons with a 64-55 victory over El Toro, which was making its first appearance in a final.

“This never gets boring,” Peninsula Coach Wendell Yoshida said. “It’s always fun to win.”

Six-foot-two center Natalie Kelly had 17 points and 17 rebounds to help Peninsula (26-4) take an early 10-point lead it never relinquished.

Peninsula kept half of El Toro’s high-scoring sister duo under wraps with its pressure man-to-man defense.

Junior Giuliana Mendiola finished with 34 points for El Toro (23-5), but her sister Gioconda, who averages 19 points, struggled.

Peninsula’s Lauryn Morita was the primary defender on Gioconda Mendiola and helped hold her to only eight points on three of 13 shooting.

“[The Mendiolas] are incredible talents,” Yoshida said. “Those kinds of players create so many problems for you. . . . We’re just glad their other players didn’t score that much.”

Amy Everett had six points and Amy Rikimaru had four points for the Chargers. But El Toro (23-5) couldn’t produce enough balance to keep Peninsula (26-4) honest. The Mendiolas took all but 11 of the Chargers’ 56 shots.

Still, although El Toro struggled with its field-goal shooting (36%) and trailed by as many as 13 points, the Chargers didn’t fade.

Giuliana Mendiola’s three-pointer with 3 minutes 4 seconds remaining in the third quarter pulled El Toro to within 38-35. And Peninsula had its starting forwards Lara Hanson (12 points) and Kimberly York (12 points) on the bench with four fouls each.

But a layup by Peninsula reserve Marissa Artiano and three-pointers by Erica Bushu and Morita pushed the Panthers to a 46-37 lead after three quarters.

“When you get that close,” El Toro Coach Vincent Avitabile said, “and then [three] more possessions it’s back up to nine points, that took the life out of us.”

Peninsula could have put the game away at the free-throw line, but the Panthers made only 14 of 32 in the final quarter.

Giuliana Mendiola made two three-pointers in a 36-second span in the fourth quarter to pull El Toro to eight back, but the Chargers got no closer.

Giuliana Mendiola played all 32 minutes and appeared to tire, making only three of her final 13 shots. She finished 13 of 32 from the field with three three-pointers.