Girls basketball: Sea Kings survive against Sailors

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - After a very forgettable first half of basketball,

both the Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor High girls basketball teams

put on an unforgettable show in the second half.

When the smoke cleared, the visiting Sea Kings escaped from the

Sailors’ gym with a 37-35 nonleague win Saturday night.

Junior Courtney Kawata’s running 12-foot jumper with 13 seconds left

gave Corona del Mar (10-12) the win, despite the inspired play from the

Sailors (2-19).

“We were right in it down to the end,” Newport Coach Glenn Albios

said. “We just missed too many free throws in the game. It was your

typical Newport-CdM game.”

Newport fell behind by eight in the fourth quarter but managed to

crawl back into it with a 7-0 run.

Mijanou Pham hit a jumper to build CdM’s lead back up to three, but a

pair of Newport free throws brought the Sailors to within one with 2:10

remaining.

Kristin McCoy, after a scoreless first half and a talking to by her

sister, Kristin, led the Sea Kings with 10 points, including a pair of

clutch free throws to give CdM a three-point margin once again.

“She stepped up and hit the foul shots when they counted the most,”

CdM Coach Elbert Davis said. “I’m still looking for more from her out

there, but she’s only a sophomore so there’s time for her to get even

better.”

After two made free throws from Amanda Campbell brought Newport back

to within one, Pham took a nice feed from McCoy for an easy layup and

pushed CdM back to a three-point cushion with one minute left.

Newport’s Athena Vasquez (seven points) streaked up the court and

found Campbell near the Sailors’ bench. The sophomore drilled a

three-pointer with 45 seconds to tie the game, sending the Newport fans,

players and coaching staff into a frenzy.

“Our effort is there,” Albios said. “We said coming into this season

that we might get too many wins, but we would continue to get better and

we’ve done that. We’re definitely heading in the right direction.”

Following a CdM timeout, Kawata received the ball with 17 seconds

left. She faked a jumper and drove to the basket. On the run, she put up

a 12-footer that banked off of the backboard and went in, giving the Sea

Kings the lead.

Newport called timeout and tried to get off a good shot. With the

clock winding down, the Sailors threw up a wild shot from under the

basket, but the officials called a blocking foul with one second left,

giving Newport a chance to tie the game with two free throws.

Neither foul shot went in and CdM escaped. “These players are trying

to kill me,” Davis said with a laugh. “They weren’t happy after this win

because they know we made a ton of mistakes and we can play better than

that.”

The elder McCoy, sidelined with a sprained right ankle will miss the

Sea Kings’ next PCL matchup at Northwood on Tuesday, but according to

Davis, may be available for their big showdown with Estancia on Thursday.

NONLEAGUE

Corona del Mar 37, Newport Harbor 35

Score by Quarters

Corona del Mar 8 3 17 9 - 37

Newport Harbor 6 7 7 15 - 35

Corona del Mar - J. McCoy 10, Kawata 8, Pham 6, Gruber 6, Marks 3, Luu

2, Hawkins 2, Snell 0, Alateha 0, Otterbein 0, Klein 0.

3-pt. goals - Kawata 2, Gruber 2, J. McCoy 1.

Fouled out - Luu, Hawkins.

Technicals - none.

Newport Harbor - Castillo 13, Vasquez 7, Campbell 7, Whitfield 4, Mino

2, Woller 2, Lindsay 0, Allen 0, Brooks 0, Scharfe 0.

3-pt. goals - Campbell 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.