Irvine Passes Test With Wolverines

Irvine fell out of the county’s girls’ basketball top 10 this week but came back Tuesday night with a 71-48 Sea View League victory over visiting Aliso Niguel.

The rout wasn’t expected by Irvine Coach Joni Colburn, who feared her team would come out fatigued because of a stressful finals week.

“There may have been a lack of intensity or mind-set,” Colburn said. “But I told the team before the game that there is nothing we can do with our studies. Right now all we can do is play hoops and release all that energy on the court.”

Irvine (18-3, 4-0) released plenty on the Wolverines after a shaky first half. Although they led by nine at the half, the Vaqueros didn’t really take control of the game until the end of the third, when they took a 13-point lead.

Jody Carlson finished with a 19 points for Irvine and teammate Kristin Thawley scored 16.

The Wolverines (12-9, 1-3) found their way around Irvine’s three-quarter press defense through much of the first half and were able to capitalize.

Aliso Niguel forward Nikia Hastie (16 points) got a few easy baskets to keep the Wolverines close in the first half, but the Irvine defense stiffened.

Julia Pederson led the Wolverines with 21 points.

“I told the team we were lucky tonight,” Colburn said. “We’re not going to get away with what we did every time.”