FALCONS FALL IN TOURNEY FINAL, BUT TURNED CORNER

After winning the San Diego Section Division 2 championship last February, Torrey Pines High School’s girls basketball team faced some challenges this season.

The Falcons moved up to the more competitive Division 1 and built a challenging schedule for the move. New head coach Scott Herrin wasn’t hired until a month before practice.

Two starters played field hockey deep into the fall and didn’t join the team until after winning a section title. Three other key members arrived late after playing on the school’s first flag football team, which advanced to the section championship.

Not surprisingly, the Falcons got off to a bumpy start.

At halftime of Saturday’s Socal Holiday Classic NAIA Silver Division championship game against San Ramon California and his team up by two, Herrin said: “If you’d have told me when we were 2-8 that we’d be playing in the championship game of this tournament, I’d have taken it.”

The Falcons couldn’t hold onto Saturday’s lead and lost to the Grizzlies 5944, but Herrin and his players walked off the El Capitan High floor feeling their season had turned a corner and not into an oncoming train.

“What we’re doing, in my opinion,” said Herrin, “is quite remarkable.”

Seniors Grace Trusso and Zoe Lau, who have logged varsity minutes since they were freshmen, are accustomed to dealing with adversity. As sophomores they weathered a 5-21 season. Then came last year’s 25-8 run.

Saturday’s loss dropped Torrey to 5-10. A daunting schedule is partially to blame. Eight of the defeats have come against teams ranked in the section’s top 18, according to the Maxpreps.com poll.

Still, after losing at Poway to fall to 2-7, a team meeting was called after the players stepped off the bus.

“I don’t have many games left,” Lau told teammates. “We need to be all-in.”

Against San Ramon California, Torrey was done in by a blizzard of third-quarter 3s. After hitting just one trey in the first half, the Grizzlies buried five in the third quarter, outscoring Torrey 23-10 in the period.

Down 29-25, the visitors closed the quarter on a 20-5 rush. The run coincided with Trusso leaving the game after drawing her third foul with 3:34 to play in the quarter.

Trusso finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Lau led Torrey with 17 points. The Grizzlies landed three players in double figures.

Say this for the Falcons: they’re a close bunch. They schedule sleepovers, sushi nights, hang out in the trainers’ room and even battled the winter flu season in unison, trekking to a nearby Vons for ginger shots.

And Lau provided a big moment Saturday that’s sure to wind up on the season’s highlight video. Seconds before halftime, after a Grizzlies turnover, Lau dribbled down floor and with the clocking ticking down, launched an on-the-run 3 behind the top of the key. Swish, for a 24-22 lead. “When she shot it,” said Trusso, “I knew it was in.”

“That was so much fun,” Lau said. “One of those moments you’ll never forget.”