PLACENTIA – Brea Olinda’s greatest deficiency on the road against El Dorado appeared to be experience.
The Golden Hawks started five seniors, while the Wildcats countered with two seniors, two freshmen and a junior.
Those two seniors, however, carried more than their fair share of weight, leading Brea Olinda to a 59-48 win in the Crestview League girls basketball opener for both teams.
Seniors Shaylissa Jarrett and Sierra Bononi both had their best performances of the month for the Ladycats (15-2, 1-0).
Jarrett scored a team-high 20 points while alternating between guarding El Dorado’s two best players – Brooke Salas and Jaylin Jones. Jarrett scored 16 points in the first half on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor, including a buzzer-beating, 35-foot 3-pointer in the first quarter to cut El Dorado’s early lead to 16-15.
“The difference was Jarrett,” El Dorado coach Wayne Carlson said. “She’s been up and down all year, but she really had a great night.”
The last time Jarrett scored 20 points or more was a 26-point performance against Vanden of Fairfield in December.
“She’ like that,” Brea Olinda coach Jeff Sink said. “About every fourth game, she just goes crazy. I think she’s one of the best players in Orange County, but she’s up and down.”
Bononi also kicked in a season-high 12 points, including seven of the Ladycats’ 15 in the fourth quarter, while El Dorado (14-6, 0-1) was doing its best to mount a comeback from a 44-32 deficit after the third quarter.
“That’s what you want,” Sink said. “I still think, in a lot of ways, we’re still a year away, but you can’t win without seniors. You just can’t.”
Brea junior Reili Richardson added 15 points and freshman Tyiona Watkins chipped in 10, but no player had as complete a game as Salas. She scored half of the Golden Hawks’ points (24), doled out six assists, brought down five rebounds and blocked three shots, all while blanketing Richardson, the Wildcats’ leading scorer, for most of the game.
“Every time we play, we try to take her out of the game and she scores more,” Sink said. “I’m not going to even try to guard her next time.”
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com