Mendiola Gets Help, El Toro Wins Easily

San Clemente has, arguably, the toughest defense in Orange County.

Its game plan on Thursday? Stop the county’s leading scorer from getting the ball in the first half, then keep her from dominating the fourth quarter as she usually does.

But even if San Clemente had stopped Giuliana Mendiola and every one of her teammates from scoring in the fourth, the county’s second-ranked team still would have lost.

El Toro, ranked No. 7, dominated the visiting Tritons, 76-61, beating San Clemente for the first time in more than four seasons.

The victory pulled El Toro (16-5, 6-1) even with San Clemente (18-3, 6-1) in the South Coast League. El Toro plays third-place Capistrano Valley next week.

The Chargers held a 62-43 lead after three quarters and, as they had done throughout the game, continued making the big shots in the fourth.

Mendiola, who had averaged 40.3 points in her previous six games, had 20 points at halftime and 34 when it was over. Her teammates made six of nine from the field in the first quarter to set the tone for the game, and buried San Clemente under a barrage of three-pointers as it progressed.

“They made Giuliana work for everything,” El Toro Coach Vincent Avitabile said. “But the other players made them pay for it. We never slumped.”

Senior Amy Shaw, who missed the start of the season with a torn ligament in her knee, scored 17, making five of six from the three-point arc. Freshman Sara Brown (15 points) made three of six.

“We can’t win if it’s just one person,” said Mendiola (14 rebounds), who is typically regarded as that one person in the “one-woman team” theory. “We have to play as a team and have everyone contribute.

“Today we showed that it’s not just me.”

That was clear to everyone in attendance.

“We couldn’t stop Mendiola, Shaw and Brown,” San Clemente Coach Mary Mulligan said. “El Toro did exactly what they had to do to beat us.”

Also critical was El Toro’s handling of the Triton press. The Chargers committed only 11 turnovers, six in the fourth quarter--and by then, it didn’t matter.

The victory by El Toro snapped an 11-game winning streak by San Clemente, which got 15 points and 13 rebounds from Kimberly Noble, and 10 points apiece from Whitney Jones and Kristin Jenkins.