Cold 2nd quarter proves Vikings’ undoing against Mt. Carmel
HOLTVILLE — Exploding for 25 second-quarter points on near-perfect shooting, the Mt. Carmel High Sundevils girls basketball team posted a 63-50 victory over the Holtville High School Vikings in a quarterfinal CIF-San Diego Section Division III basketball game here Saturday night.
With the exception of that four- minute span in the first half when Mt. Carmel went on a 12-0 run, the fourth-seeded Vikings went toe-to-toe against the fifth-seeded Sundevils, who despite going 0-8 in the roughand-tumble Palomar League had a 13-11 record.
“If you would have told me before the game we would score 50 points I’d have liked our chances,” said Holtville coach Murray Anderson. “But give credit to Mt. Carmel for their excellent shooting. They couldn’t miss.”
Holtville opened the game with three-pointers from sophomore Orian Anderson and Kamryn Walker to take a 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter, however, saw the Vikings go cold from the field, scoring 10 points, six from the free-throw line and four from senior point-guard Amanda Angulo.
“We played hard, our shots just didn’t seem to fall,” Angulo, a target of the Sundevils’ defense, said. “The pressure didn’t bother me, and I didn’t worry about the scoreboard. We all just kept pushing.”
Mt. Carmel, meanwhile, hit five of six three-point attempts, going eight-for-10 from the field and converting all four freethrow attempts to lead 35-23 at half time.
“We threw everything we had in the bag at them, full-court press, half-court trap, man defense, two different zone defenses … and nothing worked,”
Anderson said.
In the third quarter, Anderson and Angulo hit three-pointers for Holtville and Walker added two baskets and while the Vikings held Mt. Carmel to one trey, but the Vikings were not able to cut into the Sundevils’ lead and trailed 49-37.
Holtville played at a frantic pace to open the fourth quarter, which resulted in some turnovers and easy baskets for Mt. Carmel, and they again failed to cut into the Sundevils’ lead.
Walker, a freshman, led the Vikings with 15 points. Orian Anderson had 10 points and led the team with 10 rebounds, while Angulo and Caro had nine points each.
“I went from playing on blacktop last year in middle school to playing in the CIF quarterfinals. It was really different, but I really like it,” Walker said.
For the second consecutive year, Holtville saw their 20-win season end on their home court in the CIF quarterfinals, something that Anderson took in the context of his taking over the program in 2014.
“The first year we won 11 games, and that was one more than the girls had won the three previous seasons combined, and so back-to-back 20-win seasons are something we are proud of,” Anderson said. “We feel like we are still building the program. We’ll lose just one starter (Angulo), so we have a huge core coming back and talent on the lower levels, so I’m ecstatic about next year.”