Photograph by George Sakkestad
Westmont's Hoon Chung battles Prospect's Aaron Winter for the ball in regular-season play. Chung and the Warriors won 25 games this season to help head coach Gary Brinck finish his illustrious career with 402 victories.
By Dick Sparrer
Postseason play ends with a loss for all but one high school basketball team in each division in the state.
In girls' Division III competition, that state championship will be determined March 16 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
But for all teams but the two state finalists, losses have already ended the 1996 season. And the Prospect girls' team is on that list.
The Panthers lost 69-50 to Bear River in the second round of the Northern California playoffs last week. The loss brought Prospect's season to an abrupt halt.
Was it a disappointing finish? Maybe for a while. But the Panthers couldn't have been too disappointed with anything they did in the 1995-95 season. Because it was quite a year for Prospect girls' basketball.
The Panthers battled their way through the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League and into the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs.
Once there, the Panthers cruised through the CCS ranks. Prospect was seeded first, so the Panthers drew a first-round bye. In the second round, they crushed Harbor 61-36 to move into the semifinals, and there the Panthers whipped Carlmont 53-43 to set up the CCS title game against St. Ignatius.
Prospect ended up losing a 61-59 heartbreaker to the Wildcats to settle for second in CCS.
The Panthers moved on to the NorCal tournament and beat Las Plumas of Oroville 66-32 in the first round.
The long trip to Oroville was followed two days later by another long trip to Grass Valley. This time things didn't work out as well for the Panthers, who dropped a 56-50 decision to a tough Bear River team to see their season come to an end.
But what a season it was.
The Panthers finished the year 24-5. They were 12-0 and won four tournament championships in the preseason, and they were 9-3 in the tough Mt. Hamilton Division. They posted a 2-1 record to finish second in CCS, and were 1-1 at NorCal.
All five of Prospect's losses were to section finalists. The Panthers lost twice to Mitty in league play and once to Presentation. The Monarchs went on to win the CCS Division I and Northern California championships, and the Panthers played for the CCS Division II title. Las Plumas and Bear River were both section champions.
Ami Forney capped an outstanding sophomore center with two big games in the NorCal playoffs. The 6-foot-2 center pitched in 32 points in the win over Las Plumas, and she came back with 23 points in the loss to Bear River.
Forney's 32 sparked the Panthers to the win in the NorCal opener. She also pulled 13 rebounds, blocked three shots and had five steals. Senior standout Megan Sainsbury supported with 15 points, including a three-pointer, and she dished off four assists.
Shelley Kurose chipped in with six points, seven assists, four steals and five rebounds, and Heather Winkleman added four points. Kristie Carlquist, Kim Fujii, Theresa Nguyen and Elizabeth Harkins had two points each and Rahma Said hit one.
The Panthers opened up an 18-7 lead in the first period and never looked back against Las Plumas.
Prospect got off to a similar start against Bear River, but the results weren't quite the same.
The Panthers jumped in from 15-9, but Bear River topped Prospect 17-10 in the second to lead by one at intermission, 26-25. Bear River added to its lead by two in the third and three more in the fourth to win by six.
The Bruins improved to 33-1 for the year with the win.
Forney led the Panthers with 23 points and 19 rebounds. Sainsbury pitched in nine points in her final high school game, and Kurose closed out her outstanding prep career with six points, three assists and three rebounds..
Fujii added four points and three assists for the Panthers, Nguyen and Lyndsey Najima hit three each and Winkleman popped two. Nguyen had seven rebounds.
Brinck wins 402
While it was quite a year for the Prospect girls, it was also an outstanding year for the Westmont boys and veteran head coach Gary Brinck.
Brinck had announced before the year began that his 30th season would be his last as the Westmont basketball coach. And the Warriors sent him out in style.
Westmont finished an outstanding 25-4 season that included a championship in the Westmont Tournament, a championship in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL, a second place finish in CCS and a trip to the NorCal playoffs.
Brinck entered the 1995-96 season with 377 career wins and needed an outstanding finish to top the 400-win win mark. The Warriors did that and better, winning 25 games to lift Brinck's career total to an incredible 402 victories.
The Warriors lost just one in league play, and won three exciting games at CCS before losing to Palo Alto. Westmont edged Los Altos 48-46 and knocked off Monterey 54-48 to move into the semifinals against Los Gatos.
The Warriors knocked off the Wildcats 61-56 to run head first into No. 1 seed Palo Alto. Westmont slowed the tempo against the Vikings, but Paly still managed to pull out a 38-28 victory, despite getting shut out in the second period.
Still, the second-place finish in the CCS Division III tourney earned Westmont a berth in the Northern California tournament.
The year ended for the Warriors when they dropped a 51-32 decision to Granada in the first round of the NorCal playoffs, but what a year it had been.
Seniors Matt Tait, David Newberg, Hoon Chung and Lee Reyes led the Warriors to the super season, and now join an impressive list of stars who played for Brinck during his outstanding career at Westmont.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 13, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved