Up to a Point

Caitlin O’Neill says she’s comfortable playing point guard for Ventura, but she also has a 4.15 grade-point average, so she knows exactly how uncomfortable it can be playing against Long Beach Poly.

“Ultimate test,” she called the game tonight at Poly, a semifinal in the Southern California Regional Division I girls’ basketball playoffs.

Facing baseline-to-baseline pressure from Poly (28-3) -- the Jackrabbits are the top-seeded team in the tournament, the No. 1-ranked team in the Southland by The Times and the No. 2-ranked team in the state by Cal-Hi Sports -- is a momentous challenge for any point guard.

Let alone a neophyte.

O’Neill has been a point guard for only 19 games, and No. 20 will be as taxing as anything she has faced, possibly a defining moment for a 5-foot-9 senior who hasn’t grown an inch in high school, who jumped center as a freshman and shifted from shooting guard to point guard as a senior.

A victory? Against the Jackrabbits?

“It would mean more to me than any cross-town rivalry victory, probably even more than winning [the Southern Section title] as a freshman,” said O’Neill, whose team’s rivalry with Ventura Buena is as fierce as any in boys’ or girls’ basketball. “Even if we got to the state championship, I’d be playing a team I’ve never heard of before. Poly has an unbelievable record.

“I know they’ll be quick and I know their defense will be tight all over us. To keep our composure, to protect the ball, will definitely be a challenge, but a challenge we are capable of rising to.

“I have to play the best game of my career.”

Ventura (28-4) has already knocked off one intimidating challenger in the regionals. The Cougars played Tuesday at Harbor City Narbonne, which has won three state title games and has been the standard-bearer of the Los Angeles City Section the last decade, and pulled out a 48-47 victory behind O’Neill’s 17 points.

“She makes them go,” Narbonne Coach James Anderson said. “Their big kids are their big kids, and I thought we did a pretty good job guarding them one-on-one. O’Neill made some good moves slicing to the basket. She’s their MVP.”

Ventura’s big kids are Kali Bennett, a 6-5 sophomore, and Caitlin Kearns, a 6-3 junior. Before they came along, Ventura fired up three-point shots without conscience. O’Neill was part of that combination that won a Division II-AA title in 2002.

But Ventura has gone from beyond the three-point arc to becoming an inside-out team. O’Neill was to be the Cougars’ shooting guard, the shooter on the perimeter to cover the inside presence of Bennett and Kearns.

Then point guard Gloria Jauregui blew out her knee Jan. 3, and O’Neill’s destiny changed.

“I wish it wouldn’t have happened,” O’Neill said. “I liked the position I was in, but [Coach Ann Larson] told me I was going to be the [point guard], and I wasn’t going to argue with her if that’s what the team needed.”

She averaged 11.3 points, 4.3 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 steals this season.

“It’s a tough spot,” Larson said. “She’s averaging 13 or 14 points a game, and we tell her that we want her to continue averaging that, but at the same time distribute the ball.”

So O’Neill, the only senior starter, was forced to become more composed, more focused, more knowledgeable and more communicative.

Her ball-handling has improved, she has shown she can be a floor leader, and Larson said O’Neill’s stock has risen among college recruiters who have seen her play. She has an offer from Pepperdine, is also considering Princeton and has recently piqued the interest of UCLA and Seton Hall.

“I never realized how hard it was for all the point guards I’ve had to play with,” O’Neill said. “You think it’s always easy because they made it look easy.”

But she’s a quick study after averaging 9.3 points as a freshman, 14.4 as a sophomore and 14.7 as a junior.

“She’s always been a good player, but she’s stepped up and become an even better player when we needed her to,” Larson said. “She’s done an outstanding job.

“It’s scary because she’s improving as we get deeper in the playoffs. It’s taken the better teams for her to really learn how to be a point guard.”

And though she has been thinking about Poly, she has a rooting interest in the other regional semifinal, Lynwood at Moreno Valley Canyon Springs. Ventura has split two games this season with Canyon Springs, winning on Dec. 22, 67-59, and losing the Division I-A title game, 48-44, on Saturday.

“My one dream is that before I graduate, I play Canyon Springs again,” O’Neill said. “ ... But it’s not going to happen by just showing up.”