Perris’ Hester Glad to Test Troy Again

When Tay Hester steps on the court tonight at Azusa Pacific to meet Fullerton Troy in the Southern Section Division II-AA girls’ basketball title game, she will be facing a team that has beaten hers late in the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.

She will face a top-seeded team that has a 26-2 record and is ranked No. 3 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.

She will face the one team that she wants to play.

“If Troy would have lost [in the playoffs] this year,” Hester said, “we wouldn’t have taken the team [that beat Troy] lightly, but they’re the best, and we want to beat them.”

Troy missed out on winning a second consecutive state title by eight points last year. But en route to Sacramento’s Arco Arena, it was Perris that gave the Warriors their biggest playoff scare. Troy beat Perris in a section quarterfinal, 62-59, in a game in which Hester picked up three fouls in the first half.

A year earlier, Troy played one of its best games in school history and defeated Perris in the section final, 82-45, in a game in which Hester scored 20.

“They don’t want to lose to anybody but the best,” Perris Coach Marvin Williams said. “If they get beat by three or 33, they’d rather play Troy than any team. They have that kind of attitude, heart and desire to face their demons.”

Now, Hester and junior Brandie McCann get another chance. And Hester, the senior, is especially motivated.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for both her and Perris,” said Troy Coach Kevin Kiernan, whose teams have reached the section finals seven times in the last eight years. “She is a great athlete, one of those rare girls’ basketball players who can get a shot anytime she wants because she can take you to a spot on the floor and just elevate right over you.”

Hester, a 5-foot-10 guard who has averaged 18 points, seven rebounds, three steals and three assists, says she will attend either UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside or Texas El Paso.

“She’s blessed with a strong body,” Williams said. “People don’t know that Tay is a really good outside shooter, but she doesn’t have to do it because we have Brandie McCann, who lights it up.”

Hester says that she and third-seeded Perris (24-7) have had doubters. Three from the 2003 team that would have been starters transferred. Yet, Perris is in the finals again.

“I think we have proven ourselves,” Hester said.