Johnson, Nordhoff lady cagers break Cardinal spirit
By Ted Cotti

Nordhoff High School's girls' varsity basketball team lengthened its winning streak to five games, defeating visiting Santa Paula in the team's 2003 Frontier League opener 77-64 Tuesday.
Alison Bennett scored a career-high 28 points and pulled down a career high 19 rebounds; Sarah Nylander nearly recorded a triple double with nine points, seven boards and eight steals. Point guard Arian Roach scored eight and had eight assists without a single turnover, and Tahnie Benitez scored 12 and added nine rebounds while holding Ventura County's three-point shot all-time career record holder Sarah Ruiz to just three baskets.
However, it was NHS junior guard Taylor Johnson who, in just three minutes of play, really broke Santa Paula's spirit.
Trailing by as many as 16 points in the first half and by 10 at intermission, the Rangers rallied in the second half, out-scoring the Cardinals, 55-22, not allowing the visitors a single field goal in the third quarter.
While it was the defense of Nylander and Benitez that bolstered the third-quarter rally, it was a pair of buckets from the left win by Johnson that sparked the fourth quarter offensive explosion.
Taylor came off the bench and gave NHS a huge lift.
"We knew we could count on her to give us a few minutes of solid defense out front on Ruiz but those two buckets just changed the game," Nordhoff coach Ted Cotti said.
Once Nordhoff started hitting from the outside, Santa Paula knew they were really in trouble because they were already having trouble with Bennett inside.
Cotti added that while Benitez played a strong game, he was disappointed in Nordhoff's other players' lack of defensive aggressiveness and intensity in the first half.
"I wasn't too worried about our offense though because we were getting good shots from the outset," he noted. "We just weren't making them."
In the second half, the ball started dropping (the Rangers went from 11/33 in the first half to 16/25 in the second) and NHS was able to regain control.
"It was a good test for us," Cotti said.
Nordhoff will face an even stiffer test Friday when they play at Oaks Christian, who is heavily favored to win in the Frontier League.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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