Girls’ Basketball: CdM is Tip-Off champ

IRVINE — Every shot seemed challenged, every passing lane clogged, every loose rebound grabbed.

If the Corona del Mar High girls’ basketball team can sustain defense like this for the whole season, watch out.

The latest defensive gem Saturday night at Northwood High earned them a trophy.

Corona del Mar stormed to the lead early and eased to a 69-46 win over Westminster in the CdM Tip-Off Tournament championship game, winning its host tournament for the first time since 2008.

After the game, the Sea Kings made sure to stick around for a while, posing with the trophy and taking copious amounts of pictures for the scrapbooks. After all, none of them knew what it felt like to win this tournament.

“It’s a new thing for us,” agreed junior Natalia Bruening, last year’s Newport-Mesa Co-Player of the Year who had 22 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in the championship game.

Bruening and senior forward Maria King, who scored eight points in the championship game, earned all-tournament team honors for CdM (4-0). But the contributors to the title were many.

Junior post Krista Anderson had her best game of the tournament with 13 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots. And senior guard Brianna Westrup continued her stellar play with eight points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Junior guard Kelly Tam had six points and a pair of steals. Freshman guard Tia Grippo and senior post Alexa Pridemore each had a team-high three steals. Pridemore, especially, was a spark off the bench. She scored five of her seven points in the first half, which ended with CdM up big, 29-14.

“She was a great spark,” CdM Coach Mark Decker said. “Everybody that came in fulfilled their role and did it really well, at the highest level. I just think this whole tournament, defensively we played great. We can be a really, really great team if we can play defense like that.

“They’ve got a couple of good post players, and I think [Bruening and Anderson] completely shut them down. They’ve got a great shooter in Vicki Vo. She got three [three-pointers], but she worked really, really hard for them. I give all the credit to the team. We put out our game plan, and they did an incredible job with it.”

Vo scored nine of her 12 points in the second half for Westminster (3-1). Junior guard Melody Thomsen scored 21 points for the Lions, but it took her 21 shots to get there. Thomsen, who was guarded by Westrup for much of the game, did most of her damage at the free-throw line by making 12 of 15 free throws.

“They got a couple easy shots, but not many,” Decker said. “That’s our game plan, to make teams make tough shots and not bail them out. We did a great job of that. I’m really, really proud of our defensive intensity.”

The Sea Kings, who never trailed again after Thomsen made a jumper to open the game, kept building their lead to as many as 26 points late in the game.

It was a dominant tournament for CdM, which may be on the verge of a special season. The Sea Kings won all four of their tournament games by at least 20 points.

“When I was a freshman, we were nowhere near winning this tournament,” King said. “So to see how far we’ve come as a team … no one could even get close to us in any of the games.”

It was fun for the parents, too, many of whom had to work over the four-day stretch to help run the tournament. That’s what happens when you’re the one of the host schools.

“Running the tournament is a lot of work,” Decker said. “It’s a lot better to be on the winning end after all that hard work. We had all the families, the whole program working this week. It’s great to be able to do it on the court and off the court. It was a fun week, and I’m looking forward to a fun season.”

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CdM Tip-Off Tournament

Championship game

Corona del Mar 69, Westminster 46

SCORE BY QUARTERS

West 6 – 8 – 15 – 17 — 46

CdM 11 – 18 – 17 – 23 — 69

West – Thomsen 21, Vo 12, Sakamoto 6, DeCleene 4, Ontiveros 3.

3-pt. goals – Vo 3, Thomsen 1, Ontiveros 1.

Fouled out – DeCleene.

Technicals – None.

CdM – Bruening 22, Anderson 13, King 8, Westrup 8, Pridemore 7, Tam 6, Yoo 4, Wall 1.

3-pt. goals – Bruening 2, Yoo 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.