Girls basketball: Mesa outlasts Newport

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - She may be the assist specialist for the Costa Mesa

High girls volleyball team, but for Nancy Hatsushi, basketball season is

her time to score the points, which she did plenty of in Tuesday night’s

56-44 win over visiting Newport Harbor.

The senior point guard scored a career-high 25 points and tied a

school record with six three-pointers to lead the Mustangs (2-3). Former

Mustangs’ standout Evelyn Powers had six treys against Villa Park on Dec.

23, 1998 at the Artesia High Tournament.

“Nancy is one of the best players in the county, without a doubt,”

Mesa Coach Jim Weeks said. “She hit key shots for us at key times that

allowed us to get control of the game.”

Despite the hot shooting from Hatsushi, the Sailors (0-6) refused to

go away, much to the delight of first-year Coach Glenn Albios.

“We’re a very young team, but we’re getting better and better each

game,” Albios said. “If we can control the game with our defense and

continue to be aggressive, we can be successful. Right now, we’re making

mistakes that a young team would make.”

Freshman Krystal Mino led the Sailors with 12 points, followed by

juniors Evita Castillo (11 points) and Nadja Topalovic (six points).

“That’s a team that will not let you quit,” Weeks said of Newport.

“That was a good game for us to have after a week-and-a-half layoff.”

The Sailors had the momentum for the first quarter, building a

seven-point lead before Hatsushi got hot.

“We missed a ton of open shots in that first quarter, which is very

frustrating,” Weeks said. “It was pretty obvious we hadn’t played in a

while.”

Trailing by three, Hatsushi buried three treys in the second quarter,

the third giving the Mustangs the lead for good.

Mesa opened the third quarter with a 15-4 run, turning a five-point

lead into a comfortable 16-point advantage. Hatsushi drilled three more

treys in that frame.

“We were able to go on a couple of offensive spurts that gave us an

opportunity to control the game,” Weeks said.

Newport refused to die in the fourth quarter. With tough defense and

an up-tempo offense, the Sailors managed to cut Mesa’s lead to nine on a

couple occasions down the stretch.

But Hatsushi proved too tough down the stretch. Despite no

three-pointers, she was 5 of 6 from the free-throw line and scored seven

of Mesa’s 17 fourth-quarter points.

The Mustangs will host Cypress on Thursday at 7 p.m., while the

Sailors play again on Monday at the Artesia Tournament.

NONLEAGUE

Costa Mesa 56, Newport Harbor 44

Newport Harbor 11 10 6 17 - 44

Costa Mesa 7 19 15 15 - 56

Newport - Topalovic 6, Whitfield 4, Mino 12, Castillo 11, Vasquez 1,

Brooks 1, Gorman 5, Woller 4.

3 pt. goals - Gorman.

Fouled out - None.

Costa Mesa - Hatsushi 25, Grewal 4, Caron 5, Cooper 6, Trejo 1, Muniz

2, Marshall 9, Lazos 2, Naff 2.

3 pt. goals - Hatsushi 6, Grewal 1, Marshall 1.

Fouled out - None.