Mendiola’s 55 Points Push El Toro Past Foothill

If there can be such a thing as quietly scoring 55 points, El Toro’s Giuliana Mendiola did it Saturday night.

Even she was shaking her head and questioning everyone’s scorekeeping capabilities after she got word of the total.

Mendiola was unstoppable against seventh-ranked Foothill, leading the No. 8 Chargers from a nine-point halftime deficit to a 71-62 nonleague victory at Foothill. She scored El Toro’s final 19 points.

“I had no idea,” Mendiola said after the career-high performance, which was six short of the county record set by Tracy Titus of Loara in 1991. “I guess I’m speechless.”

Her game did all the talking.

Mendiola, who averages a county-high 32 points, had 21 in the fourth quarter and scored 39 of her team’s 47 second-half points. She also had eight rebounds and five steals.

“Is that it, out of our 71?” joked El Toro Coach Vincent Avitabile. “Usually I know when she’s around a certain point. Her scoring was done so quietly, she usually gets lots of her points by shooting threes.”

That’s what separated Saturday’s outburst from a usual Mendiola scoring frenzy. She limited herself to taking just seven three-pointers (making five) and probably passed the ball as often as she shot it.

Mendiola’s performance overshadowed an outstanding effort from Foothill’s Kristen Mann, who scored 13 of her 34 points in the fourth quarter.

A Mann layup gave Foothill (13-7) a 23-8 second-quarter edge. The Knights led until Sara Brown’s three-pointer gave El Toro a 50-49 advantage early in the fourth quarter. The basket started a 7-0 run for the Chargers (14-5).