Warriors win girls basketball league championship

Fallbrook High School's girls basketball team won the 2020-21 Valley League championship.

The Warriors posted a 10-0 record in Valley League play. Fallbrook's regular season overall record was 19-7. The May 29 CIF playoff selection and seeding meeting gave Fallbrook the top seed in the Division III playoffs, which provided the Warriors with a first-round bye and a June 5 home game against the winner of the game between Castle Park and Santana.

A Warriors win June 5 will give Fallbrook a semifinals home game June 8, and the Division III championship match will be held June 10 at St. Augustine High School.

The league championship is the first for Fallbrook girls basketball since the Warriors shared the 2016-17 Valley League championship. The outright league championship was the first since the Fallbrook girls won the 2006-07 Avocado League title.

"I didn't think it would happen this fast. I knew we had the talent to win it," said Fallbrook Coach Trae Harrison.

Talent alone doesn't win championships; applying lessons also contributes to a first-place season. "I just wasn't sure, because of our age, that we would actually get to this point," Harrison said. "We're young."

Gillyana Villicana is Fallbrook's only senior this season. A knee injury from last year required surgery, but that would have prevented Villicana from playing this year and she postponed the surgery. She was able to play, although her time on the court was minimal.

"She wanted to be part of the team whether she got playing time or not," Harrison said.

Following pre-game practice, Villicana would inform Harrison whether she felt capable of playing. "She missed the majority of the games. We let her play Senior Night, but she's missed quite a few games," Harrison said.

Villicana didn't mind sitting on the bench. "She wants to win. She doesn't care if she gets a minute on the court," Harrison said.

What Villicana did off the court may have been just as valuable to the team. "She's able to talk to the girls," Harrison said. "We're going to be losing a lot of guidance and just leadership with her."

Including Villicana and one junior who was brought up from the junior varsity team, the Warriors' roster consists of 12 players. Five of those are juniors.

"Everybody at one point or another has been hurt this season. We've had some major injuries," Harrison said.

Fallbrook began the season March 26 with a 79-37 home loss against Carlsbad and then lost a 68-40 game March 27 at Carlsbad. The Warriors' next three games were tournament contests: a 59-25 victory April 1 against Mira Mesa, a 49-42 loss April 2 to Eastlake, and a 46-41 triumph April 5 over Coronado.

Junior point guard Naiya Kurnik scored 41 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and made six steals April 7 when the Warriors obtained a 74-23 victory over Orange Glen. Fallbrook's April 10 game at El Camino was a 74-55 defeat. On April 13, Kurnik had 34 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, and four steals in the Warriors' 75-45 triumph at Great Oak.

Fallbrook lost back-to-back games against San Marcos; the score of the April 16 game on the Knights' court was 55-44 while San Marcos won a 54-32 contest April 17 in Fallbrook.

A seven-game winning streak began April 20 with a 54-33 game at Pacific Ridge. The score of the April 23 home game against Sage Creek was 53-35. Fallbrook visited Del Norte for an April 24 game which ended as a 45-40 triumph. The April 27 game at Rancho Buena Vista was a 60-41 win.

Valley League play began April 30 including Fallbrook's 50-37 victory over San Marcos. Those two teams played May 1 in San Marcos with the Warriors prevailing by a 43-24 margin. A May 5 non-league game at St. Joseph Academy was a 57-42 Fallbrook victory.

The winning streak ended May 6 at Sage Creek. Fallbrook held a 14-11 halftime lead, but the Bobcats had a 10-5 scoring advantage in the third quarter and won the 24-23 rematch of the game two weeks earlier.

"The girls were burnt out the second game," Harrison said. "They needed a break."

Harrison credited Sage Creek for figuring out how to stop the Warriors. "We just weren't making the right passes inside," he said.

That gave Fallbrook's subsequent opponents knowledge on the Warriors' vulnerabilities. "We fixed the things we needed to be fixed after that loss," Harrison said.

The non-league loss had no negative effect on the league championship. "Honestly I think we needed it because the girls got a chance to open up to the coaches what they needed," Harrison said.

Mount Carmel, Ramona, and Valley Center shared second place in the final Valley League standings with 6-4 records, and six of Fallbrook's final eight league games were against those teams. A new winning streak began May 7 at Mount Carmel; the Warriors prevailed by a 36-31 score and then defeated the Sundevils in a 49-19 game May 8 at Fallbrook. The May 14 game at Ramona was a 60-30 Fallbrook victory, and the Bulldogs' May 15 visit to Fallbrook had a 51-42 result in the Warriors' favor. Fallbrook's two games against Escondido were a 56-24 home triumph May 21 and a 69-16 road win May 22. On May 27, Fallbrook leveraged a 43-10 halftime lead into a 68-31 win at Valley Center.

Senior Night was May 28 when the Warriors hosted Valley Center. The 69-32 victory included leads of 37-16 at halftime and 58-24 after three periods.

Kurnik had 21 points in the regular-season finale along with seven rebounds and three steals; junior Elley Ahrend provided 13 points; sophomore Brooke Quintana scored 11 points; junior Juliana Blas contributed 10 points, and freshman Claire Nordeen added nine points and seven rebounds. "We have six or seven players that can score," Harrison said.

That means an opponent won't necessarily win by being able to shut down Kurnik. "We've been passing the ball well, communicating well," Harrison said.

During the regular season, Kurnik averaged 21 points per game. Kurnik and Ahrend both averaged more than 10 rebounds per game. "We controlled the glass," Harrison said.

Nordeen grabbed 27 rebounds consisting of eight offensive and 19 defensive boards in the league opener against San Pasqual. The single-game team record of 32 is shared by Michelle Harimer and Kristy Seidel. Harimer's school record was set in 1982, when the Warriors won the CIF Class 3A championship.

If Harrison and his players have their way, that 1982 championship will no longer be Fallbrook's most recent. "We just need to go 3 and 0 to win CIF," Harrison said.

Regardless of what happens in this year's playoffs, the Warriors had an undefeated league season and a top playoff seed. "I think it's big. I think it's a step in the right direction," Harrison said.

"We're building a program," Harrison said. "Our future is exciting. We want to make sure we solidify our future."