Gael girls trample Western

      With Paige Sutton sitting on the bench with an upset stomach Friday night, Bishop Gorman sputtered like a Jaguar on grain alcohol.
      "She was so sick this week that I didn't want to play her if I didn't have to," said Gorman coach Tom Robinson.
      But midway through the second quarter, with the Gaels down 22-21 to Western, Robinson finally put Sutton, his 6-foot-1 center, into the game for the first time.
     

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The effect was instant and dramatic -- Gorman went on a 16-5 run and never looked back, cruising to a 67-47 victory over the Warriors in opening defense of its Southern Conference girls basketball championship.
      Sutton scored just nine points for Gorman, 12-3 overall and 1-0 in the Sunset Division. But her rebounding and crisp passes -- particularly to wing Amy Roban, who had 20 of her 26 points with Sutton in the game -- helped pull the Gaels out of their early funk.
      "When we have Paige on the court with Amy, we can surround them with a very strong team," Robinson said. "But they are the core of our team, and if either is missing, we can have trouble."
      "I thought the team did a really good job adjusting to not having me in there," Sutton said. "I helped out on rebounding. That was the main thing. Otherwise, everyone else ran all the offense."
      It was Sutton, the coach said, who pushed to get into the game.
      "Early in the second quarter, she said, `Coach, I'm ready to go in if you need me,' " Robinson said. "A few minutes later, she said, `I want to go in.' "
      After Gorman's streak gave the Gaels a 37-27 lead, Western cut the margin to four points, 39-35, thanks to some inspired defensive play.
      But Roban scored for Gorman, followed by a Sutton 3-pointer to push the lead back to 44-35.
      Western coach Sam Johnson pointed to that 3-pointer as the game's turning point.
      "That really turned the momentum against us, right at the end of the third quarter. And in the fourth, we had a couple of possessions, but we couldn't find the basket," Johnson said.
      Gorman scored the first nine points of the period, taking a 58-41 lead. The Gaels outscored Western 18-6 in the quarter, 10 coming from Roban.
      Fran Mitchell scored 11 for the Warriors (4-5 overall, 0-2 in Sunset), and Tiffany Day had 10.
      Kari Hartsell and Tiffney Touton had 11 points apiece for Gorman.