SECOND CHANCE

Call it a bittersweet 16.

Last year on her 16th birthday, Brooke Porter sat on her team’s bench and watched with envy as an archrival celebrated the regional girls’ basketball championship she thought belonged to her.

Some birthday, Porter thought, as players from Mission League opponent Alemany hugged at midcourt after their 50-45 victory bounced her Harvard-Westlake team from the playoffs, one game short of reaching the state Division III championship game.

“That hurt so badly because I really believed last year was our year,” said Porter, the Wolverines’ point guard.

Today, one day shy of her 17th birthday, Porter will get another chance to qualify for the state final, when Harvard-Westlake meets Fullerton Rosary at 1 p.m. at the Pyramid in Long Beach for the Southern Regional Division III championship.

The winner will face either Lafayette Acalanes or Loomis Del Oro next Saturday at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

Teammate Omelogo Udeze, who scored 33 points Thursday in a 65-54 semifinal victory over Wasco, gets much of the attention from opponents and the media.

But the junior guard known to teammates as Bits has been anything but a bit player.

This season, Porter is averaging 11 points a game, second to Udeze, and leads the team with a per-game average of six assists and three steals.

In her last four playoff games, she has averaged 14 points.

It’s no coincidence that a program that never won a playoff game is 77-19 overall and 11-3 in the postseason since Porter arrived three seasons ago and took over the point-guard duties.

As Harvard-Westlake’s top three-point shooter, Porter was sorely missed last week during the final minutes of a 53-46 loss to Morningside in the Southern Section Division III-A final.

Porter, who had made three three-pointers, was sidelined with a severe cut to her lower lip that sidelined her the final three minutes and later required six stitches.

Without Porter, Morningside’s defense smothered Udeze and the rest of the Wolverines’ powerful inside game and extinguished any hopes of a Harvard-Westlake comeback.

“It makes a difference,” Udeze said. “When she’s there to hit the [three-point shot] it opens up the game for everybody else inside. It’s a lot tougher when she’s not there.”

Brian Taylor, in his third season as Wolverine coach, knew he had something special when he first saw Porter, then in the seventh grade, play on the blacktop at Harvard-Westlake’s middle school.

“I said, ‘Wow,’ ” Taylor remembers. “I had never seen a girl at that age so knowledgeable of the game, who showed such sound fundamentals and handled things so well on the court.”

Porter has been an overachiever much of her life.

As the only girl on a boys’ traveling all-star basketball team, Porter would routinely face first-half jeers, then face box-and-one defenses specifically designed to stop her in the second half.

Last summer, Porter was one of six interns at a major magazine. The other five were college students.

This summer, she will begin her third season as a ball girl for the L.A. Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Assn., a minimum-wage job with a few perks.

“It’s really neat to be a part of it, just to interact with the players and coaches is an incredible experience,” Porter said.

At 5 feet 5 inches, Porter has no delusions of becoming a professional.

“My aspirations stop after college ball,” said Porter, who hopes to gain an internship in the Sparks’ front office next year.

Last season, Porter was asked to write a first-person story for the campus paper about her experience after the regional final loss.

“It was painful, but it helped me put things in perspective,” she said.

While she can’t rewrite history, she can add a much happier chapter today against Rosary.

“The money is on the line,” Porter said. “This is my time of year.”

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GIRLS’ DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP

Harvard-Westlake (28-5) vs. Fullerton Rosary (23-8)

1 p.m. at the Pyramid in Long Beach

* These teams have not met since 1997, when the Royals eliminated Harvard-Westlake in a Southern Section Division III-A quarterfinal.

Junior guard Maggie Barrett is averaging 19.5 points and senior forward Romina Bollini is contributing 12.4 points for Rosary. Sophomore forward Hayley Munroe, the neice of Hart girls’ basketball coach Dave Munroe, scored the winning basket in the Royals’ 47-44 victory over Ganesha last week in the III-AA championship game.

The winner advances to the state final next Saturday at Arco Arena in sacramento, where it will face the winner of today’s Northern Regional final between Lafayette Acalanes (26-4) and Loomis Del Oro (28-4).