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Girls’ Basketball: Westrup helps CdM

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After a high school soccer career that has been slowed by injury at times, Corona del Mar High senior defender Brianna Westrup decided she wasn’t going to play on the pitch her senior year.

Westrup is already headed to the University of Virginia for soccer. But when CdM girls’ basketball Coach Mark Decker heard she wasn’t going to play high school soccer this year, he had a talk with her about returning to the hardwood, where she played for CdM as an eighth grader.

“I thought about it for a little bit,” Westrup said. “I talked to my club coaches and my college [soccer] coaches, obviously, to make sure it was OK with them. I ultimately decided it’s really good cross-training, for the cardio aspect of it. I figure it’s my senior year, and I might as well have fun with it and try something new. I’m not really going to be able to get to do that in college.”

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In the first high school basketball game of her career, Westrup showed she could defend at the varsity level there too.

She had a game-high eight steals, two blocks and dished out numerous assists as CdM beat Mission Viejo, 58-27, in a CdM Tip-Off Tournament quarterfinal game Wednesday at Corona del Mar High.

CdM (2-0) will play Tustin in the tournament semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. at CdM. Expect Westrup to again be a factor.

“She’s just a phenomenal athlete,” Decker said of Westrup, who scored her first and only basket off a steal in the final minute of the game. “I mean, she played water polo her freshman year, and I thought that was great. She’s played a lot of soccer in her life, so for her to get the opportunity to do this and to do that her freshman year, I think it’s great. When I heard she wasn’t going to play high school soccer, I talked to her. I knew she loves to play basketball too. We just had to work out some scheduling, and luckily it worked out.”

Junior post player Natalia Bruening had a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds for the Sea Kings, who outscored Mission Viejo, 19-2, in the second quarter to earn a 34-16 halftime advantage.

Junior point guard Kelly Tam, who had nine points and six steals, was also a big factor on defense.

“I thought we did a great job defensively in the second quarter,” Decker said. “Almost every possession, we got a tip or a deflection so we could get out and run. We were doing what we wanted to do.”

Mission Viejo was led by junior guard Brooke Bigelow, who scored 12 points. Bigelow and senior Candice Hinkle combined for three three-pointers early in the third quarter, as the Diablos (1-1) scored the first 11 points to pull within 34-27. But the Sea Kings used a three-point play from Bruening, in which she banked in a shot from near the top of the key, to help seize back control.

Bruening scored 12 of the Sea Kings’ 14 points in the quarter as they pulled away, before holding Mission Viejo scoreless in the final quarter.

“‘Bri’ and Kelly were just killing it on steals, and we did a great job of fixing our rebounding,” Bruening said. “Everyone had a change of mentality and was really going hard on defense. I feel like the defense made our offense start to flow a little better, so I think that was kind of just a domino effect.”

Senior forward Maria King (eight points) and junior center Krista Anderson (six points, three blocks) join Bruening and Tam as returning starters for CdM, which started a freshman, Tia Grippo, at guard as well.

The Sea Kings have high hopes for this season, after advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division 3AA semifinals last year for the first time since 1983, as well as making the CIF State playoffs for the first time in program history.

Decker said that CdM’s nonleague schedule is tougher, with games against powerhouses like Tesoro and Edison.

“I think that we know that potentially we have a really good team,” Decker said. “What that translates into at the end of the year, who knows. The playoff divisions changed; they put some really good teams in our division. All we can do is improve and get better ... I do think we will be a really, really good team by the time the end of the season comes around.”

CdM Tip-Off Tournament

Quarterfinal

Corona del Mar 58, Mission Viejo 27

SCORE BY QUARTERS

MV 14 – 2 – 11 – 0 — 27

CdM 15 – 19 – 14 – 10 — 58

MV – Bigelow 12, Hinkle 6, Barkhordar 5, Loskot 4.

3-pt. goals – Bigelow 3, Hinkle 2.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

CdM – Bruening 24, Tam 9, King 8, Anderson 6, Yoo 5, Wall 2, Grippo 2, Westrup 2.

3-pt. goals – Yoo 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

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