No. 9 Oilers Sink No. 7 Chargers

Two of Orange County’s top 10 girls’ basketball teams continued in different directions Thursday when No. 9 Huntington Beach defeated seventh-ranked Edison, 61-41, in a Sunset League game at Edison.

The Oilers (12-9, 3-3) jumped right back into the league race, while Edison (16-6, 4-2), which lost to first-place and top-ranked Esperanza by 29 points this week, continued its slide.

Playing in her fourth game for Huntington Beach since returning from a severe ankle sprain, junior forward Kelsey Ball hit nine of 15 shots and finished with 23 points, while Amy Sanders added 12 points, 14 rebounds and seven steals. Amy Shaw had seven points and seven rebounds.

“It’s nice to be whole again,” Huntington Beach Coach Bill Thomson said. “I thought we played awfully well, especially on defense. The whole team did a good job.”

Huntington Beach led from the outset and was never seriously threatened, using a 36-19 rebounding edge to keep the Chargers at bay.

“Our biggest problem was that we let our offense affect our defense,” Edison Coach Geoff Bell said. “We missed some shots and made some turnovers and gave up on defense. [Huntington Beach is] awesome on offense and when we let down, next thing we knew, we were down, 32-12. It’s back to the drawing board.”

Junior guard Rachael Ziemann scored a team-high 21 points, but her twin sister Bianca, who averages 15.7 points per game, managed only four. Kristen Chidley and Ashleigh Noda scored five points each.