OCHS girls' basketball team stymied by Seraphs
With road trip to Fillmore on tap, Lions must regroup quickly
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers BATTLE IN THE PAINT- OCHS senior forward Keiosha Hunt takes the ball straight at St. Bonaventure's Jessica Castro during Tuesday's contest at Oaks Christian. The Lions lost the game, 49-40.

The race for a girls' basketball championship in the Tri-Valley League just got a little more interesting.

Behind a stellar defensive effort by St. Bonaventure, Oaks Christian lost to the Seraphs 49-40 at home Tuesday night. The game was a far cry from when the squads played earlier this month at St. Bonaventure, where Oaks Christian dominated in a 56-32 rout.

The loss put the Lions' league record at 7-2, two games behind Fillmore High for the top spot in the TVL. St. Bonaventure is a half a game behind OCHS.

Oaks Christian, whose overall record is 15-4, fell behind early against the Seraphs. Down 10-2 in the first quarter, Lions' sophomore Katie Brooks took it upon herself to get Oaks Christian back in the game.

Brooks scored on three straight possessions to cut the lead to 10-9 before Lion senior Chelsea Carlisle scored on a layup to give her team its first lead.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers IN CHARGE- Oaks Christian senior point guard Chelsea Carlisle scored 15 points in the loss to St. Bonaventure. Carlisle leads the Tri-Valley League with 23 points per game this season.

The lead was shortlived, however, as the Seraph defense held Carlisle to only four points in the first half en route to a 23-18 lead at the end of the second quarter.

After Brooks scored 11 firstquarter points, she was unable to score another basket until the fourth quarter.

"We tried to get (Brooks) the ball inside because we felt she had some mismatches in the first quarter," Oaks Christian first-year head coach Andre Chevalier said. "St. Bonaventure adjusted in the second quarter and did a great job the rest of the game of keeping her away from the basket."

Although she was doubleteamed most of the night, Carlisle decided to be more aggressive in the second half. She scored four points and assisted on another basket in the early moments of the third quarter to help keep the game close at 2925. Unfortunately for the Lions, it was as close as they would get.

Sparked by backtoback 3pointers by Seraph junior Erica Whitley, St. Bonaventure went on an 11-0 run to put the Lions in a 15-point hole at the end of the third quarter. Carlisle scored nine points in the final quarter to give her 15 points for the night, but it was too little, too late. Brooks also finished the game with 15 points.

After the game, Chevalier said the Lions needed to receive contributions from the entire roster. Besides Brooks and Carlisle, no other OCHS player scored more than four points.

"We need to get other people scoring for us," Chevalier said. "We need to do a better job of coming out and playing hard the entire game and realizing that every possession is important."

Although Oaks Christian had a difficult time scoring points Tuesday night, thanks to Carlisle the Lions' offense hadn't been a problem prior to their game against St. Bonaventure.

Carlisle, who handles the pointguard duties, leads the TriValley League in scoring with 23 points per game. She has scored in double digits in each of the team's 19 games, including 15 games of at least 20 points and eight games of at least 25 points.

The University of California, San Diego-bound Carlisle said she would love nothing more than to go out a winner at Oaks Christian.

"That's been the one main goal of mine- to win," Carlisle said. "That's why I play these games."

Carlisle, along with Christine Escoto and Keiosha Hunt, are the lone seniors on the OCHS roster. Escoto is averaging 9.2 points per game while Hunt trails only Brooks in rebounds.

Carlisle believes that Brooks, who's averaging 11.6 points and 10.2 rebounds as a sophomore, is the real deal.

"She's an awesome player," Carlisle said. "She works really hard every game, and she has so much potential. Although she's already a huge part of this team, she's only going to get better."

Carlisle also had a lot of praise for Chevalier, who took over for Don McMaster this season.

"He's a great coach," Carlisle said. "He's taught us a lot, and he's developed the younger players very well. I'm glad he's here."

Chevalier has big shoes to fill, as the Lions won a Tri-Valley League championship (2007) and three Frontier League titles (2003, 2005 and 2006) in the last five years under McMaster.

Oaks Christian can close the gap on Fillmore tonight when they look to avenge a 77-71 loss from early January.

"The one thing we learned (against St. Bonaventure) is that we can't look past anyone," Carlisle said. "We have to play well against Fillmore and do a better job of executing what our coach is telling us to do."

Tipoff for tonight's game is slated for 6 p.m. at Fillmore.