No. 4 San Clemente Beats No. 1 Troy

Mary Mulligan, with only one starter back from last season’s team, gave her young squad some advice before Tuesday’s game against Troy, the top-ranked team in Orange County.

“I told them that we had been in some tough games, and we had the advantage if we had a chance to win at the end,” Mulligan said.

Did they ever.

San Clemente, ranked fourth, won at Troy, 55-52, in a nonleague showdown that included 25 ties or lead changes, 10 in the fourth quarter.

San Clemente already had two other close victories, both over fifth-ranked Esperanza, by five and four points. Troy’s closest game was a 24-point win over Corona del Mar.

“I’ve seen San Clemente play three times,” said Troy’s interim coach, Christine Collins-Kiernan, “and every time they’ve gotten better.”

Troy’s loss came on the heels of Kevin Kiernan’s resignation on Friday.

“We couldn’t do [anything],” Collins-Kiernan said. “I hate to make excuses and say we were emotionally spent. We got killed in the post, missed a lot of layups. We didn’t take care of the little things. . . . For the first time in a while, we weren’t mentally tough.”

Troy was tough enough to wipe out a second-quarter deficit of eight points, and a third-quarter deficit of seven. But it couldn’t wipe away San Clemente’s clutch performances.

Lindsey Pluimer, a 6-foot-2 freshman, made an 18-footer from the baseline to take a 51-50 lead with 58 seconds remaining for San Clemente. Teammate Kim Buffum made four of four free throws in the final 33 seconds.

Troy (4-1), which won its own tournament last week on the same floor, made only two field goals in the final four minutes. San Clemente (6-0) was 13 of 15 from the free-throw line, compared with Troy’s one-for-six effort.

“This was a tough week for us,” said Veronica Johns-Richardson, who scored 18 but made only two of her last 10 shots. “I still feel we’re better than them, but they did what it took.”

The defensive performance of Ashley Housley and Sara Brown on Troy’s Alicia Komaki paid dividends. Komaki, one of the county’s top shooters, scored six points on three for 14 shooting, including zero for seven from the three-point line. That part of San Clemente’s plan worked.

But Troy’s Amanda Livingston surprised the Tritons, Mulligan said. Livingston, a 6-1 sophomore, had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

She made her first 10 shots, but missed her last two, the first with 3:45 remaining and the score tied, 47-47.

San Clemente got a balanced performance as Brown scored 16, Megan Blackshire 13, Buffum 10 and Pluimer and Jenkins eight apiece.