Crean Lutheran girls basketball team earns No. 16 OC ranking with 7-1 start

Taylor Feldman of Crean Lutheran drives to the basket. (Photo courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs/Howard Lyon, For OC Sports Zone)

Crean Lutheran’s girls basketball team, led by first year coach Bianca Ziemann, is off to a 7-1 start and is ranked 16th in this week’s Orange County Register poll.

The Saints defeated Garden Grove 71-46 on Thursday night.

“The girls played awesome tonight and everyone played,” said first-year coach Bianca Ziemann.

Taylor Feldman led the Saints with 25 points and eight steals. Shannon O’Malley scored 13 points and Christina Volz contributed eight points and 10 rebounds, “one of her best games yet,” Ziemann said.

Maya Bland had eight points and fours steals for the Saints.

“We are very proud of our overall team effort in tonight’s game vs. Garden Grove,” Ziemann said. “Everyone contributed defensively and that has and will be our main focus throughout the season.”

Bianca Ziemann said the Saints run an “up tempo fastbreak which I was taught by the main man himself Paul Westhead while I was his assistant at the University of Oregon. But not only does our fastbreak bring excitement but we also want to force other teams to play fast and into our hands with the full court defense we execute. We are a very guard heavy team which has allowed us to be able to go in transition and play a suffocating defense in the full to half court which has been currently lead in steals by Daelyn Johnson and Taylor Feldman.

“Now, the beauty of our team is that if we are stuck in the half court we have a seasoned post player who brings a back to the basket game (Hailee Daniels) as well as highly decorated point guard Taylor Feldman and transfer Trinity Cha with accurate sharpshooters returner Shannon O’Malley as well as Emily Reed and freshman off the bench Sarah Bonsangue. We have a great supporting cast (Daelyn Johnson, Daisy Lammers, Maya Bland, Christina Volz and Ashley Heyer) that we believe will elevate and lift up our team. 

“In all, Coach Rachael (Ziemann) and I stress teamwork, dedication, determination and discipline. We are very confident in our giftings of our players and know this season can be very special. But it is going to take a one day at a time mentality.”

Crean Lutheran also reached the championship game of the La Habra Tournament, losing in the finals to Bishop Amat 60-51 in overtime. The Saints defeated Whittier Christian 51-49, Rowland 61-54 in overtime and Gahr 75-44 to reach the finals.

Crean Lutheran is back in action Saturday at 1:30 p.m. hosting Big Bear in a nonleague game.