Newbury Park Girls Stop Pioneers

The Newbury Park High girls’ basketball team has served notice to the Marmonte League that if the Panthers stay healthy, they will be contenders.

Newbury Park capitalized on 10 turnovers by Simi Valley in the second quarter on Wednesday night and went on to a 63-50 victory at Newbury Park.

The Panthers (11-7, 3-0 in league play) used pressing defense to limit the Pioneers to six points in the second quarter while scoring 22 and building a 36-24 halftime lead.

After playing much of the season with several players missing games because of injuries and illness, the Panthers had a balanced attack as Cassandra Harris scored 26 points, Rachel Hever added 14 and Bridget Harris had 12.

Teresa Cooper, who scored 17 points for Simi Valley, did not score in the second quarter.

“We have five players who can score, what we have to have are five players playing solid defense,” said Coach Nori Parvin of Newbury Park. “I thought we did a nice job of taking Cooper out of her game.”

The Panthers had an 8-0 run to start the second quarter, tying the score, 20-20, with 6:27 to until halftime. Newbury Park continued to apply defensive pressure, hurrying Simi Valley into several mistakes.

Newbury Park extended the run to 17-4 and built a 34-26 halftime lead.

“It’s not like practice turning the ball over,” said Coach Dave Murphy of Simi Valley, “We let them take the game over.”

The Pioneers drew within 49-47 with 4:25 left when Sarah Ripley hit two free throws. Newbury Park responded with an 8-2 run in the next three minutes to put the game out of reach.

“It took us a while but we were able to pick it up and play a total game,” said Cassandra Harris, who played her first game after injuring an ankle last month.