BREA, Calif. - The much-anticipated Southern California Regional final between the nation's top-ranked girls team
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) and No. 2
Brea Olinda wasn't just wiped out on Saturday.
Canyon Springs point guard Tear'a
Laudermill was key all night.
File photo by Heston Quan
It was obliterated.
Canyon Springs-Moreno Valley (30-3) went into Brea Olinda's home gym and not only defeated the Ladycats, the Cougars pretty much dominated them.
Junior Jasmine Johnson scored 20 points and freshman Cheyenne Greenhouse more than doubled her season average with 17 in a decisive 63-53 semifinal victory on Saturday night.
Nebraska-bound Tear'a Laudermill added 15 points as Canyon Springs moved into next week's championship game against Mater Dei (32-1), a 59-39 winner over Narbonne.
The Cougars led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter against the nine-time state champions. They committed only nine turnovers to 16 for Brea, which beat Canyon Springs 55-36 in the Southern Section semifinals two weeks earlier.
"We looked at films and said if you start doing this stuff right, you got this game," Canyon Springs coach Gail Hale said.
Said Laudermill: "This started when we lost in the playoffs. We had to build up our confidence. We had to take it to them."
The Cougars used runs of 8-0 and 11-2 during the first half to take a 33-21 halftime lead. Brea had trouble putting any kind of runs together, never scoring more than four straight points in the first and third quarters.
The Ladycats (31-2) had trouble making shots, connecting on 21 of 65. They cut the lead to 49-40 on consecutive baskets by UCLA-bound Justine Hartman and Keitra Wallace, but Canyon Springs put together its last significant run - 8-0 - to take command for good.
Canyon Springs' Cheyenne Greenhouse
more than doubled her scoring average
on Saturday night.
File photo by Heston Quan
Laudermill scored six of them.
"They played as hard as we did, and that's unusual for teams to do that," Brea Olinda coach Jeff Sink said.
He was also impressed with Canyon Springs' role players - especially Greenhouse. So was Hartman. More so, the talented post thought the Ladycats weren't on their game.
"We couldn't pass, we weren't in our rhythm," she said. "We were off our game. I was off my game for sure. I couldn't hit a shot."
Brea was led by Jeanier Olukemi with 16 and Wallace 12.
"If peaking is part of the game, we didn't peak at the right time," Sink said. "Maybe we ran out of gas."
