The Ventura College Pirates have come to learn how vital the “sophomore four” tandem of Erika Ward, Chanelle Brennan, Kris King and Amanda Padilla are to the success of the team.
The four veterans from last season’s 34-1 squad combined for 74 of the team’s 83 points in an 83-63 win over Cypress College Saturday night in the Southern California Playoff Regional Semi-Final game at the Ventura Athletic Center.
Erika Ward, who had her first triple-double of her career with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, believed the big four have played a key role this season.
“I think our role is very important this year, especially all of us [sophomore four],” she said.
“We just had experience from last year, and I think this year we were just really hungry to make the playoffs because we wanted it this year. So we just all the sudden stepped up.”
The No. 2-seeded Pirates (30-1) never gave the 18-seeded Chargers a chance. An Erika Ward lay-up gave the Pirates a 30-19 lead and later capped off an 11-0 run to push the lead to 36-19 with less than five minutes to play.
The Chargers made a push toward the end of the half to cut the lead to nine at the half, and by as much as six in the second half, but never got any closer.
Pirates head coach Ned Mercetic also commented on the impressive performances of his sophomore four that posted an astonishing 64-2 record in their respective careers at Ventura College.
“They are probably as important as any foursome that have been here,” he said. “They take turns scoring, they take turns rebounding, they take turns with the assists and their games blend with one another.”
If the Pirates win the So. Cal Regional Final next week, they guarantee themselves a spot in the State Tournament.
Mercetic hopes his team will play the way they have been playing in the Regional Final.
“I hope they play normal for that [Regional Final], which is they play as a team and play hard,” Mercetic said.
The Pirates will look to their sophomore four to help clinch a State Tournament berth when they host San Bernardino College in the Regional Final next Saturday at 7 p.m.
