The Pacifica Christian girls team features twin towers: Shari and Shannon Volpis who combined for 33 points all within the paint. They are not actually twins, since Shannon is a junior and Shari a sophomore; but they do tower. To overcome the height advantage, LLA relied on ball movement, outside shooting, and transition baskets to emerge with a 59-45 first round victory.
After Pacifica scored first, Corrinn Clevenger reeled off a 7-0 personal run taking laser passes from Caitlyn Terukina. Ericka Dalida and Alex Stream each added a field goal to make the score 11-2 and that basically turned out to be the difference in the game. The Sea Wolves would push the ball inside and take advantage of offensive boards; the Roadrunners would counter with beating the press for lay-ins. After one quarter, Pacifica had pulled to within 3 at 16-13.
Three pointers by Jacqui Jones (2) and Dalida helped LLA rebuild the lead to 33-23 in the second quarter.
Shannon Volpis pumped in 8 points in the third quarter, but LLA kept pace Clevenger scored 5 points and Alex Stream added 4. Ball movement proved the key to getting open short range shots despite the size differential. The same 10 point differential remained after the third quarter: 45-35.
Pacifica closed to within 6 points at 45-39 to open the final period. Terukina nailed a 3 pointer to retain a cushion. Jones also added another three pointer as the Roadrunners maintained the lead.
Shannon Volpis led all scorers with 23 points while Shari had 10. Clevenger led LLA with 16 points. Jones had 11 with 3 three point baskets and Terukina had 10 points with at least 12 assists. Dalida finished with 9 points and Stream had 8 as the starters accounted for all but 5 of the points.
LLA will next play Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec, California on Saturday night. Frazier Mountain defeated Silver Valley of Yermo 53-46. Lebec is the little town in the Tejon Pass going into Kern County on I-5. It is only 130 miles from Loma Linda. If that is too far to travel, come cheer for the boys team at 3 PM on Friday afternoon as they take on #1 seed Village Christian.
