Fountain Valley girls’ basketball playoff-bound after beating CdM

LOS ALAMITOS — Fountain Valley appeared to be playoff-bound no matter how Wednesday afternoon’s Sunset League tiebreaker with Corona del Mar played out. Making that a certainty brought immense satisfaction.

The Barons snared the last of the league’s four guaranteed postseason berths without much trouble, riding Sophie Hsieh’s effortless jump shot and a keen defensive ploy to handcuff their rivals’ two most vital players in a 47-33 triumph at Los Alamitos High’s new Griffin Center.

It’s the third successive trip to the CIF Southern Section playoffs for Fountain Valley (15-13, 6-6), its seventh in eight seasons and second under head coach Camyrn Hamaguchi.

Fountain Valley senior Avery Jones (32) attempts to keep the ball away from Corona del Mar sophomore Brooke Barry (24) on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

“The guarantee definitely feels nice,” Hamaguchi said. “A little bit of a weight off my shoulders, for sure. I think the season we’ve had and the ups and downs, it feels nice to know that we get to extend the season and keep what we have going.”

Divisional assignments and brackets will be announced by CIF on Saturday.

The season is over for Corona del Mar, which went 5-1 through the first half of Sunset play and 1-5 since as the winter flu ravaged its roster. The Sea Kings (12-15, 6-6), who last year shared the Sunset League title with Fountain Valley and Los Alamitos, were in must-win territory.

Corona del Mar’s Maggie Kirkowski (3) attempts to steal the ball away from Fountain Valley’s Bailey Dinh (25) on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

“We’re a young team,” CdM coach Brason Alexander said. “Once that happened, it kind of messed with us. We lost a little of our mojo. We knew coming into this year we were going to go up and down. We would like to be up right now, but our young kids are great kids and hard workers. I think they’ll take this and learn. But it still stinks.”

The Barons held CdM to just one basket on its first 15 shots and commenced a 10-0 run midway through the first quarter to take command, built a double-digit lead to start the second quarter, and were ahead by 17 points before both sides emptied their benches for the final 1:45.

Hsieh, a senior shooting guard, was the catalyst in Fountain Valley’s balanced attack — she scored 16 points, Bailey Dinh added 11 points and Kailey Nishi 10 points — and key in Hamaguchi’s triangle-and-two zone that handcuffed pivotal CdM guards Brooke Barry and Sawyer Blumenkranz, taking away the Sea Kings’ perimeter game.

Corona del Mar’s Anastasia Magi (10), left, posts up against Fountain Valley’s Skye Temple (10), right, on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

Sophomore forward Anastasia Magi had a team-high 10 points for CdM. Barry and Blumenkranz were held to a combined six points.

“She’s just a game-changer,” Nishi said of Hsieh. “She’s been like that since her freshman year. She’s just so amazing. She’s a game-maker. She runs the plays. She has the highest IQ of a basketball player, and she just knows what to do on the court and off the court.”

Hamaguchi says Hsieh is “playing her best basketball right now.”

Corona del Mar’s Mia Balabanian (1) looks for a shot while guarded by Fountain Valley’s Sophie Hsieh (13) on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

“She’s shooting with confidence,” Hamaguchi added. “She knows that she’s got the green light from me. She’s a phenomenal defender and a great passer. She gets her teammates open, which frees her up, as well.”

Fellow senior Avery Jones, a mobile 6-foot-2 center, provided a foundation in the middle, scoring six points, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking a shot.

Fountain Valley’s Truley Nguyen (2) steals the ball away from Corona del Mar’s Brooke Barry (24) on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

It was the Barons’ second successive win in the series — the first time they’ve done so since CdM joined the Sunset League in 2018 — after dropping the league opener by 24 points. They won the second meeting in overtime after squandering a double-digit, second-half lead. They’ve weathered a tough campaign, capped by major injuries to Kaylie Sasaki and Adeline Phan, and emerged a better team.

“[The injuries] really hurt our team in the short term,” Hsieh said. “But I think it brought together everybody, because we had to start relying on each other a lot more. I think that really built our chemistry, so that we worked better in the long run. ... [We have] a lot of confidence as a team.”

Corona del Mar’s Sawyer Blumenkranz (5) draws contact while driving past Fountain Valley’s Bailey Dinh (25) and Avery Jones (25) on Wednesday in a Sunset League girls’ basketball game.

(Eric Licas)

Sunset League

Fountain Valley 47, Corona del Mar 33

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Corona del Mar 6 - 10 - 8 - 9 — 33

Fountain Valley 14 - 12 - 14 - 7 — 47

CdM — Magi 10, Balabanian 5, Barry 4, Atarod 4, Kirkowski 3, Kish 2, Blumenkranz 2, Migliori 2, Simons 1.

3-pt. goals — None.

Fouled out — None.

Technicals — None.

FV — Hsieh 16, Dinh 11, Nishi 10, Jones 6, Nguyen 2, William 2.

3-pt. goals — Nishi 2, Hsieh 1, Dinh 1.

Fouled out — None.

Technicals — None.