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Homestead's Tanya Green, looking for someone to pass to in this win over Wilcox, hit 11 points, but the Mustangs lost to Pinewood in the CCS semifinals last week.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Mustangs fall in CCS semifinals
Homestead girls lose to Pinewood in hoops
By Dick Sparrer
It was an unusual role for Homestead basketball players Tanya Green and Julia Randall. And it was an unusual role for their coach, too.
Because for the first time in many years, Wade Nakamura and his Homestead girls were not playing in the Central Coast Section Division II basketball finals--they were watching from the stands.
Nakamura led the Mustangs to back-to-back CCS Division II championships in 1999 and 2000, but in 2001 the Mustangs could get only as far as the semifinals.
Homestead lost 52-31 to Pinewood in the semi's to face elimination. The Mustangs finished the year 19-8, and Pinewood went on to beat Leland 67-32 in the section championship game.
The Mustangs could take solace in the fact that Leland had beaten their season-long nemesis, St. Francis, 60-46 in the CCS semifinals. But that was little consolation for a team that was shooting for a section three-peat.
Homestead was outscored in every period but the fourth in the loss to Pinewood.
Green poured in 11 points to lead all Homestead scorers in the game. Junior guard Sabrina Gauthier supported with eight points for the Mustangs.
Randall and Charlene Jarrett pitched in four points apiece, and Mandy Wald and Janelle Kitasoe had two each. Jarrett popped a three-pointer for the Mustangs.
Homestead trailed just 16-13 at the first buzzer, but Pinewood outscored the Mustangs 20-11 in the second quarter and 12-3 in the third to take control of the game.
The loss marked the final high school game for Homestead seniors Green, Randall and Chris Strombel, who were all members of the '99 and '00 CCS championship teams.
Senior guards Carolyn Whiteman, Pavla Mikula and Jarrett were also playing their final game for Homestead.
Gauthier and junior guard Stephanie Malcolm will join Adrienne Hoopes as senior leaders on next year's Homestead squad. Freshmen Wald and Kitasoe are other stars of the future for the Mustangs.
It was something of a youth movement on the floor for Homestead this year, and Nakamura knew early in the year that the development of the young players would determine Homestead's success.
And they developed well enough to team with veterans like Green and Randall to push the Mustangs into the CCS semifinals, losing only to the eventual section champs.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
