No Charm for Brea Girls the Second Time

OAKLAND —  Brea-Olinda High School hid its Achilles’ heel well enough to win 55 consecutive games.

Auburn Placer learned the secrets, however, and put an end to Brea-Olinda’s winning streak and its bid to win back-to-back state titles on Saturday with a 54-43 victory in the state Division III girls’ basketball championship game at the Oakland Coliseum.

Christa Gannon led unranked Auburn Placer’s upset of the state’s top-ranked team. The 6-1 center had 22 points on nine-of-19 shooting and added 15 rebounds.

She had 16 of those points in the second half, eight in the fourth quarter when Placer outscored Brea-Olinda, 21-7.

The Lady Cats were most vulnerable at center, where 5-9 Jinelle Williams starts.

“We didn’t match up,” Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh said. “(Gannon) is not only 6-1, she’s a great player.”

Trakh called Gannon, who will attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall, one of the top three centers his team has faced this season and the most fundamentally sound, and that includes 6-5 Morningside center Lisa Leslie, who was named the top prep scholar-athlete in the nation.

Lack of height at the center position wasn’t Brea-Olinda’s only problem Saturday.

Auburn Placer found another weakness: The Lady Cats have trouble against an active 2-3 zone.

Palos Verdes, with 6-2 center Monique Moorehouse, played a 2-3 zone in the Southern California Regional final game. Brea-Olinda escaped with a 47-46 victory.

“I was so happy when teams thought they had to man us all year because of our shooters, because that wasn’t it,” Trakh said. “It was the zone.”

Auburn Placer held four Brea-Olinda starters below their scoring averages, held the team to 14 second-half points and all but eliminated the Lady Cats’ transition game. Placer also outrebounded Brea-Olinda, 46-23.

And it held Aimee McDaniel, Brea-Olinda’s point guard and leading scorer (16.4 average), to three points in the second half.

McDaniel kept Brea in the game during the first half, with Gannon making only one field goal and four free throws. McDaniel, with four three-point baskets (she made five of 10 Saturday), had 19 points in the first half. No other Brea-Olinda player scored in double figures.

Brea-Olinda led, 29-24, at halftime and 36-33 after three quarters.

“They just came out and outplayed us,” Trakh said. “There are no excuses, no alibis. . . . Aimee (McDaniel) played like she was not going to let us lose, but they took away the things we wanted to do.”

Brea-Olinda shot 33% for the game. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Cats made three of 14 shots and turned the ball over four times, including three in a row, helping Placer take a 44-38 lead with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

That was when Placer guard Carla Souza was hit in the chest by a knee during a scramble for a loose ball. She remained on the court for several minutes and was helped off. She did not return.

“As soon as that girl went down, it was kind of like they said, ‘Let’s do it for her,’ ” McDaniel said. ‘They wanted it more. They were hungry.”

Brea-Olinda tried, unsuccessfully, to pick up the slow pace that Placer dictated.

“We tried pressing, they handled it,” Trakh said. ‘We tried denying and getting in the (passing) lanes, and they were just poised and handled it.”

Said Placer Coach Jim Mallery: “One of the key things for us is that teams in our league are very similar to Brea. They are strong, quick, not very big, and you have to move with them. So we felt very comfortable. The only difference was their shooters. McDaniel was knocking the lights out. . . . But when we were only down by four at halftime, we knew we would stay with them because we’re a second-half team.”

The loss left most of the Brea-Olinda players in tears.

“We’ve always told them that accepting defeat is part of the game, but emotionally they put so much time in, you could see them crying before the final buzzer,” said Trakh, who consoled his players during the awards ceremony.

“Thirty-three and one,” he said. “I’ll take that. I’m proud of them.”

McDaniel was one Lady Cat who was not crying after the game.

“It’s sad to see it end this way, but I’m glad we made it here,” she said. “To do it two times would have been nice. To end this way, it hurts, but it’s just something you have to live with. You can’t win all the time.”