Brea Is Back in the Final

Driven by the fear that she wouldn’t get another chance to play the team that ended Brea Olinda’s streak of 11 consecutive Southern Section titles, Chelsea Trotter took matters into her hands Thursday night.

Trotter scored 17 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and led Brea to a 61-38 Southern California Regional semifinal victory against host Santee Santana.

Brea (27-6) will play Redondo Union, a 60-35 winner Thursday over San Diego University, in the regional final Saturday at the Great Western Forum.

The final will be a rematch of Saturday’s Southern Section Division II-AA title game, won by Redondo Union, 55-46.

Santana, which had won 18 in a row en route to the San Diego Section championship, finished 27-6.

“My foremost fear before the game was not getting another chance at Redondo,” Trotter said of the team that ended Brea’s 17-game winning streak. “I know this team’s history. It’s up and down. We can play like we did when we beat Hanford, or we can play like we did against Redondo.

“If we come to play psychologically . . . that’s the question mark.”

There was no question about Brea’s focus against Santana.

The Sultans had no match for Trotter, a 6-foot-3 forward bound for Stanford. She scored 10 points in the first half as the Ladycats stretched a 10-8 first-quarter lead to 30-18 at halftime.

The Ladycats didn’t coddle Santana in the third quarter, either. They opened with a 13-6 run after closing the first half with a 13-4 run.

Santana made only one of 13 shots from three-point range. Sharpshooter Jaime Ransom, who scored 23 against Pacifica on Tuesday, was held to four.