PREP BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS : BREA-OLINDA vs. AUBURN PLACER

RECORDS--Brea-Olinda 33-0, Auburn Placer 28-3

SITE--Oakland Coliseum Arena, 9:30 a.m. Saturday

BREA-OLINDA UPDATE--The Lady Cats are coming off their biggest scare of the season. Palos Verdes outplayed them in the Southern California Division III Regional final, but Brea-Olinda won, 47-46, on Tammy Blackburn’s free throw with 1.3 seconds to play. If anything could reinvigorate Brea’s drive to win back-to-back state titles, that close game certainly could. Not that Brea-Olinda wasn’t showing plenty of vigor. Brea-Olinda is ranked fourth in the nation and has 55 consecutive victories. The Lady Cats have four starters back from last season’s state Division III champion team. They include Aimee McDaniel, who recently broke the school career scoring record. McDaniel’s back-court mate, Blackburn, is one of the top open-court players.

AUBURN PLACER UPDATE--Placer gets most of its scoring from three players: 6-1 center Christa Gannon (16 points per game), guard Caree Anderson (11) and forward Trina Haddock (10). Placer plays a half-court game and depends on the outside shooting of Haddock to help open things up inside for Gannon.

KEY TO THE GAME--Placer will have to establish its inside game and not let Brea’s up-tempo transition game and pressure dictate the pace. Haddock, who can do great damage from the perimeter, will have to be hot. Brea-Olinda will have to attack Placer’s 2-3 zone and get center Jinelle Williams involved in the offense. Williams, the Lady Cats’ second-leading scorer, had only two points against Palos Verdes.

CONSENSUS-- Brea has too many weapons, too much experience, too much unity--just plain too much for Placer.