Blackshire, Tritons Survive
When the game is on the line in the final minutes, Megan Blackshire is usually sitting on the San Clemente bench.
But because Blackshire, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, is one of the Tritons’ most physical players, she found herself getting critical minutes at crunch time in the South Coast League game Tuesday.
Her free throws with 53 seconds remaining were the decisive points as second-ranked San Clemente outlasted its nemesis, Capistrano Valley, 53-49, in the Triton gym.
“It was a free-for-all,” San Clemente Coach Mary Mulligan said. “Thank God nobody got hurt.
“That was about as physical as two girls’ teams can play without flat-out hurting each other.”
San Clemente (19-2, 6-0) plays Thursday against No. 7 El Toro (15-5, 5-1) which also must play Capistrano Valley (14-7, 3-3).
“I’m never playing at the end of the game like that,” Blackshire said. “I don’t know why I was playing tonight.”
She played because all sense of finesse was thrown out the door in the opening minutes.
San Clemente, which had to rally in the fourth quarter the last time it played the Cougars, led by eight points with 3:55 remaining. Baskets by freshmen Jessica Voisard and Hallie Steube (16 points), free throws by senior Nicki Howard (10 points) and a basket on Steube’s drive, tied the score with 1:23 to go.
Meanwhile, Blackshire was experiencing the emotional spectrum.
After missing two free throws just 10 seconds before Steube’s tying basket, Blackshire fouled Steube with 55 seconds left, giving the Cougars a chance to take the lead.
But Steube missed both free throws, the second going in and out, and Blackshire was fouled on the rebound.
“After the foul, I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to make up for it, I’ve got to make up for it,’ ” Blackshire said. “I was feeling a lot of pressure at the end of the game.”
In the double bonus, Blackshire made both free throws for a 53-51 lead.
Laura Perez missed a shot with 37 seconds remaining, and San Clemente’s Kimberly Noble pulled down her 20th rebound. Cassie Kruger (eight points, six steals) drove up the middle of the Cougars’ defense with seven seconds remaining for the final score.
Noble and Whitney Jones scored 16 apiece for San Clemente.
“We’re a finesse team and they’re a physical team,” Mulligan said. “Against Capistrano Valley, we usually just survive.”
In this case, barely.
In another South Coast League game:
Mission Viejo 56, Dana Hills 38--Meghan O’Donogue scored 18 points and Erin O’Donnell (16 points) connected on five three-pointers for Mission Viejo (10-11, 3-3). Charlene Stephenson had 13 rebounds and nine points, and Jenny Miller had 11 rebounds and seven points for the Diablos.