Girls basketball: CdM steps into the big time

Barry Faulkner

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - The Corona del Mar High girls basketball team

ventures to Tinseltown tonight for a CIF Southern Section Division III-AA

quarterfinal clash with No. 3-seeded Harvard-Westlake (20-7).

Coach Elbert Davis’ Sea Kings (22-5) realize, however, the odds are

against a happy ending.

“This is easily the best team we’ve played all year,” Davis said. “This

is the big time, here.”

CdM has had a big-time season of its own, winning the Pacific Coast

League, its first league crown in recent memory, and winning 13 of its

last 14, 19 of its last 21.

The Sea Kings extended their dream season with a come-from-behind, 60-49

overtime victory over visiting La Canada in Saturday’s second round.

The Wolverines, runner-up to top-seeded Alemany in the Mission League,

have demolished their first two playoff foes. The section’s III-A

champions in 1998 handled Western, 87-25, in the first round, then

trounced South El Monte, 75-26, in Saturday’s second round.

“They have some real big-time players, so this should be a tough one for

us,” Davis said. “At the same time, if we’re ever going to step as a

program, playing a team like this allows us to see were we need to go.”

The Sea Kings should have trouble going inside on offense against the

taller Wolverines, whose leading rebounders are 6-foot-3 sophomore

Terbrie Taylor and 6-1 junior Rolake Bamgbose. The Harvard-Westlake

rotation also includes 6-0 junior L’Tanya Robnett.

Bamgbose averaged 10.2 points and 9.8 rebounds in the regular season,

while Taylor also chipped in 9.8 boards.

Robnett averaged 11 points and five rebounds, while Brooke Porter, a 5-5

junior guard, averaged 11 points for coach Brian Taylor, a former NBA

player.

CdM is paced by 5-7 junior forward Kristin McCoy, who averages 15.4

points and 10.1 rebounds. She had 17 points, including eight in overtime,

and nine rebounds against La Canada.

Charlene Quon, a 5-3 guard, is the only CdM senior. She averages 9.0 ppg.

Jackie McCoy, a 5-6 freshman, averages 7.2 ppg.

Tonight’s winner advances to Saturday’s semifinal against either

second-seeded Bishop Montgomery or Costa Mesa.