Jillianne Whitfield

Patrick Laverty

It’s what young athletes dream of while practicing in the driveway.

Three, two, one ... a last-second shot ... it’s good, and the

crowd goes wild.

For Jillianne Whitfield, it’s a dream come true.

Whitfield, a senior point guard for the Newport Harbor High girls

basketball team, drove the length of the floor and scored the

game-winner in the Sailors’ 48-46 CIF Southern Section Division II-AA

first-round victory over University Saturday.

“That was definitely amazing,” Whitfield said.

After a timeout, Whitfield dribbled the ball upcourt, drove into

the lane, pump-faked and pivoted left around a double team and tossed

in an eight-foot jump shot.

Whitfield, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, finished with 10

points, but that final bucket was easily the most important and most

memorable of her four-year career. She was mobbed after the play.

“It wasn’t an on-the-ground pile, but everyone went crazy,”

Whitfield said. “My mom was crying. She came up to me and said, ‘Hug

me, I’m your mother.’”

For all the craziness after the shot, it was a testament to

Whitfield how calm she remained in the final seconds. To her, it was

just a play she had run a million times before in practice.

“Honestly, I’ve done that exact move so many times in practice,”

Whitfield said. “It was very natural. It just happened.”

Playing basketball since the fifth grade, Whitfield has developed

a love for the game. But at Newport Harbor, where she has also

competed in field hockey and track and field and plans to play

lacrosse this spring, basketball hasn’t developed a reputation as a

powerhouse.

The Sailors last postseason victory in girls basketball prior to

Saturday was just shortly after Whitfield began playing the game, in

1997. In her first two years on varsity, Whitfield and the Sailors

won just six games. But a 13-win season last year returned Harbor to

the playoffs and despite Wednesday’s season-ending loss to El Dorado,

Saturday’s victory has Whitfield leaving the program in much better

shape than when she arrived.

Primarily a shooting guard in previous seasons, Whitfield took

over the point guard role in her final season and although her

scoring average is down, the Sailors are guaranteed to finish the

year with a winning record for the first time in her career.

“At the beginning of the year I was frustrated,” Whitfield said of

her new role. “I felt like I wasn’t contributing as much as I could.

I didn’t realize my contributions were coming from other places.”

Those contributions have been apparent to others throughout the

season, whether it be the seven rebounds she grabbed against

University or simply her floor leadership and her ability to be a

coach on the floor.

After helping Newport Harbor win a field hockey championship in

the fall, Whitfield plans to continue in that sport in college and

has narrowed her choices down to Michigan, Virginia and Stanford. But

the sport she loves the most, basketball, will continue to find a

place in her life.

“It’ll have to be intramural because I can’t leave it alone,”

Whitfield said.