University girls beat Irvine, earn share of PCL title

IRVINE - University's girls basketball team had plenty to celebrate after a 48-35 Pacific Coast League victory over Irvine Wednesday night at University.

With the victory, the Trojans earned a share of the PCL title, their first since 2004.

The Trojans (8-2, 18-8) share the crown with Woodbridge (8-2, 18-8). The Warriors defeated Beckman, 58-23, on Wednesday to clinch their share of the title.

"When you're in with a team like Irvine that has a lot of talent, and you've got Woodbridge in your league which is a perennial league champion, you don't expect it," University coach Mike Nobe said.

"I knew we could compete for it, but it's really nice when it actually happens."

The Trojans players on the bench poured onto the court to congratulate their teammates after the team had earned the school's sixth league title.

"We wanted this so bad," said senior forward Clarissa Reiland. "It means so much because we worked so hard for it. We hit our shots and we played good defense and we got it done.

"My dad always says to focus on what you want to do, and I think that's definitely what we did today."

University held a 20-17 lead at halftime but held only a 29-27 lead going into the final quarter.

However, the Trojans extended the lead to 39-29 on a 3-pointer by Katie George about midway through the final quarter and were in command the rest of the way, outscoring the Vaqueros, 19-8, in the final quarter.

"We played really hard the whole game," Nobe said. "We didn't shoot particularly well most of the game, but we played great defense and Irvine played just as hard. It was a hard-fought game today and I think we finally made a few shots in the fourth quarter that kind of opened it up a little bit."

University had a balanced attack led by Melody Yu who had 12 points, including nine of her team's 11 points in the first quarter. Clarissa Reiland and Michelle Shen added 10 points each for the Trojans.

Irvine (7-3, 19-7) had a lot on the line too, needing a victory to clinch a share of its first league title since 2000.

But University's defense caused problems for the Vaqueros. Jessica Thawley and Maddy O'Donnell scored eight points each to lead the way.

"It wasn't a question of effort tonight," Irvine coach Amy Klamberg said. "Unfortunately, we didn't connect on as many shots as they did. They played great defense on us and at first, I don't think we did a very good job of handling the pressure. I think we shot like 8 for 40 (field goals).

"Credit them, they've had a good season. Mike (Nobe) does a great job with them, they play hard, they have some really good wins this year. It's unfortunate we went from first to third, but we still have a lot of season left hopefully and we we've got to regroup and be ready to go into the playoffs."