Lady Lions earn a spot in CIF title game

had tears in her eyes. Head coach Don McMaster revealed a look of relief. And most of the remaining players on the Oaks Christian girls’ basketball team celebrated at center court with teammates, coaches and friends.

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers FOLLOW THOUGH—Oaks Christian guard Michelle Clark displays perfect form on a 3-pointer over St. Bonaventure’s Ashley Leslie during a CIF-SS Division IVAA semifinal playoff game at Newbury Park High School last Saturday night. The Lions will now face Marlborough in the CIF title game Saturday at 1 p.m. at The Pyramid in Long Beach. The Lady Lions had just survived a dreadful first half to defeat St. Bonaventure, 47-32, in the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division IVAA playoffs last Saturday night at Newbury Park High School.

“Oh my God, it’s like, amazing,” sophomore guard Chelsea Carlisle said after the win. “Last year we were in the same position and we lost. We knew we didn’t want that to happen again, so we came out and gave it all we had.”

With the victory, OCHS (21-8) advances to the CIF championship Saturday at 1 p.m. against topseeded Marlborough (23-3) at The Pyramid in Long Beach.

It was a hard-earned trip to the title game for the No. 2seeded Lions.

After scoring 77 and 75 points, respectively, in its first two playoff games, Oaks Christian shot only 12 percent from the field (4-of-33) in the first half against St. Bonaventure.

Junior guard Michelle Clark, the team’s lading scorer on the year with 17.2 points per game, was 0-for-8 in the first half.

Carlisle averaged 16.8 points per game during the season, but she didn’t fair much better in the contest’s first 16 minutes, hitting only 3-of-12 field goals.

“I don’t know, I was really focused for the game,” Clark said. “I don’t really care how I played as long as we won. That’s all that really matters.”

“I’m really proud of our girls for stepping up when, obviously, I had a really bad night,” Clark said.

Despite its offensive woes, OCHS only trailed the Seraphs 17-16 at halftime.

After the intermission, however, the Lions picked up the intensity on both ends of the court. They hit their first four shots of the third quarter and were able to create some separation from St. Bonaventure, leading 30-25 after three quarters of play.

With 5:41 remaining in the contest, Chupp fouled out with her team up, 36-26.

One of only two OCHS seniors— forward Devon Giuliani being the other—Chupp was forced to sit and watch as her squad tried to hold onto the lead.

“It was upsetting to foul out at the end,” Chupp said. “But I just stayed in it and cheered my team on. . . .I had to put it in their hands and trust them. I have an amazing team that I knew would take care of it.”

Try as they might, St. Bonaventure was unable to close the scoring gap with its pressing defense, as the Lions put away the Seraphs, 47-32.

Carlisle led all scorers with 20 points. She also had seven rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Clark contributed nine points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Giuliani chipped in with eight points and six rebounds.

Junior forward Jennifer Sterling came up big for Oaks Christian all night long, logging seven points, nine rebounds and two steals.

During a telephone interview two days after the win over St. Bonaventure, McMaster said his team needs to play much better to have a shot at upsetting Marlborough.

“If we don’t, they’ll beat us by 30,” McMaster said.

The coach added that the Lion defense would be hard pressed to come up with a better effort than it did against the Seraphs.

“We were really good on defense,” McMaster said. “We doubleteamed when we should have and covered the areas we needed to cover. I don’t know that we can play too much better on defense.”

The Lions’ top priority against Marlborough, champions of the Sunshine League, will be containing 6-foot-4 senior center Abi Olajuwon, the daughter of former NBA superstar Hakeem Olajuwon.

Defending Olajuwon will be a team effort, McMaster said, although much of the responsibility will likely fall in the lap of Giuliani, who stands 5-foot-10.

“I’ve never played her, but I’m pumped,” Giuliani said. “I’m not intimidated at all.”

In three postseason games thus far, Marlborough has defeated its competition by an average score of 80-41.

Stiff competition, playing in a spacious arena with the CIF title in the balance, it’s enough to make even the most seasoned player nervous.

But Chupp and Giuliani have been here before. They were junior varsity call-ups on the 2003 Oaks Christian team that won a CIF banner at The Pyramid.

Chupp said the championship experience can be overwhelming, but she’ll do whatever she can to get her teammates ready for what promises to be an exciting atmosphere.

“I’m just going to tell them it’s going to be extremely overwhelming,” Chupp said. “There’s so much intensity, so much emotion going into it. As soon as we step on that court, it’s going to be out of control. We just need to stay focused.”