By Jon Haber
Special to the Daily Press

SANTA MONICA The No. 3 seeded Ocean League champion Santa Monica High School girls basketball team (22-4, 9-1) looks to extend its season-high nine-game win streak Saturday against Redlands East Valley (16-11, 9-5) in the first round of the CIF-SS Division II AA playoffs.

The Vikings head into the matchup — set to tip off at 7:30 p.m. in Redlands — with a growing confidence they’ve played with since defeating No. 9 nationally-ranked Ayala of Chino Hills 77-55 on Jan. 19.

“The highlight of our season was when we beat Ayala,” Vikings head coach Marty Verdugo said Friday. “It showed me when we play well, we can play with anybody.”

Verdugo knows his team has a lot of momentum heading into the playoffs, but he wants to make sure his girls don’t start looking too far ahead of themselves. Last year, Norco defeated the Vikings 67-58 in the third round of competition.

“We have to take it one game at a time,” he said. “We need to play with a combination of great defense and balanced scoring.”

The Vikings will rely heavily on senior shooting guard Daisy Feder, who averages over 21-points per game, to guide the team one step closer in their quest for a CIF championship.

“Our team leader, no question, is Daisy Feder. She’s done everything from scoring, to defending, to rebounding. She’s pretty spectacular,” Verdugo said.

However, Samohi’s success doesn’t begin and end with Feder. The team is 36-5 over two seasons since inserting sophomore standout point guard Thea Lemberger into the starting lineup. Lemberger averages 11-points and seven assists per game and is the perfect distributor Verdugo says he needs on the floor.

“She’s the floor leader, the one to get us into our offense,” the coach said. “She directs traffic, and we have all the pieces that go with her.”

Those pieces include junior center Ellesse Brandis and senior center Katy Keating, who anchor the post play for the Vikings both offensively and defensively, as well as two guards that often play under the radar because of other stars at their position.

“I’m planning on big things from Jennie Harding and Karlia Batalla during the playoff run,” Verdugo said. “They’re lock-down defenders, and if we can get some scoring from them we’re going to be really hard to stop.”

The Vikings ended the regular season ranked No. 24 by the Los Angeles Times. Their ultimate goal is to meet Citrus Belt League champion Miller of Fontana (23-2, 14-0) in Long Beach, CA for the CIF Championship, according to Verdugo.

“Miller is the team to beat, they’re ranked No. 1 in the other [Div. II AA] bracket. We hope to work towards a showdown with them at the pyramid, but, like I said before, it’s one game at a time,” he said.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

Other Samohi playoff action is underway Saturday. The Ocean League champion girl’s soccer team (13-7-4, 10-0) hosts Cypress at Santa Monica Airport Field at 1 p.m. The girl’s water polo team faces off against La Habra at 11 a.m. at Sonora High. And the Samohi wrestling team continues its post-season action at 10 a.m. at Marina High school in Huntington Beach.

The Samohi boy’s Ocean League champion soccer and basketball teams began their playoff push late Friday. Scores were not available at press time.

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