Calvary Chapel Has No Answers in Final

The bad news for Calvary Chapel in the Southern Section Division IV-A girls’ basketball title game Friday came in multiple-choice form:

Question: Which of these things is worse?

A) It’s a moral victory when you get the ball past midcourt.

B) You manage only five shots in the first quarter.

C) The other team is clapping for your good defensive plays.

For Calvary Chapel, the answer was “all of the above.”

Top-seeded Playa del Rey St. Bernard, exacting vengeance with a vengeance, defeated Calvary Chapel, 82-52, at the Pyramid, winning its sixth section title and third in four years.

The game was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, won by Calvary Chapel, 62-61, in which the Eagles led by two points and St. Bernard’s Shannon Howell stood at the free-throw line shooting three free throws with no time on the clock.

Howell missed two of the three.

Calvary Chapel went on to win the section title, the only season in the last six that St. Bernard failed to reach the championship game.

The only thing that would have made the victory more complete for St. Bernard (22-5) would have been if Cathy Joens was still at Calvary Chapel.

Instead, Joens is playing at George Washington, and her former teammates could have used her Friday.

“If we played like we did today against the same team as last year,” Howell said, “we would have killed them.

“We knew we had this game won when we walked into the building. Last year was just the worst loss. It made us want revenge. That was our motivation.”

Second-seeded Calvary Chapel (19-8) committed 21 turnovers in the first half, 14 on steals. In the first quarter, Calvary Chapel committed 14 turnovers, 11 in their own backcourt against a defense that was too tall, too quick and too much.

Howell had six first-quarter steals and sophomore Alexis Kendricks had five, leading to easy baskets for both. Howell scored 16 in the first quarter, Kendricks had 11.

Howell finished with 28 points, nine steals and eight assists; Kendricks had 17 points, five steals and four assists. Melanie Mosley, a junior, added 12 points and 11 rebounds.

St. Bernard’s defense was so dominant, Calvary Chapel managed just five first-quarter shots, making two--both by Lindsey Richelli (10 points) in the first 1 minute 34 seconds, giving the Eagles a 4-2 lead. Then came a 30-3 run that provided the Vikings with a 34-9 margin after eight minutes.

Calvary Chapel Coach Russ McClurg said it was the most overwhelming first-quarter performance he has ever faced.

“They were even better than we expected,” he said. “Twenty-one turnovers in the first half--it’s easy to do the math.”

Calvary Chapel finished with 31 turnovers and made 15 of 35 field-goal attempts--fewer than 10 shots per quarter. St. Bernard was 34 for 68.

It got so bad for the Eagles that at one point, with 3:26 left in the first half, Liz Mahlow stripped the ball on a breakaway layup attempt by Kendricks, and Kendricks applauded Mahlow’s effort along with the Calvary Chapel crowd. At the time, the score was 43-15.