The Los Alamitos High girls basketball team made a solid run in the South Coast Tournament, reaching the championship game before falling short to Mater Dei for the title, 58-41, on Saturday at University High. Just getting to the title game is such a high-quality field of teams shows a lot of potential for a Griffin team that head coach Rich Alvarez admits is still trying to find an offensive rhythm. The Griffins reached the title game by holding opponents to no more than 37 points. “We’ve been focusing on defense first,” Alvarez said. While the defense was key, it was a big three-point shot that finally propelled them to the title game. With the score tied at 33-33, senior guard Brianna Flynn drained a three-pointer from the right angle that lifted the Griffins to a 36-33 victory over Woodbridge in the semifinals on Friday night. The Griffins led 26-23 at the end of the third, but the Warriors went on a 9-2 run to take a 32-28 lead a little more than two minutes left in the game. Miranda Ta’Amu was fouled while driving for a layup and made both free throws to pull the Griffins within 32-30. After a defensive stop, senior guard Dani Iwami hit a three pointer to tie the game at 33-33, with 1:08 left in the game. The Griffins again made a defensive stop to gain possession, which set up the game-winner by Flynn. Against Woodbridge, senior center Sarah Hermann led the offense with 10 points and Iwami had nine. Flynn finished with seven and sophomore guard jade Galloway added six. Iwami, Flynn and Hermann are returning starters and the Griffins have seven returners all together from a team that went 22-7 last year, won the Sunset League title and reached the CIF-SS quarterfinals. They have the potential and their sights set on defending their league title and making another strong run in the CIF-SS playoffs. In the South Coast quarterfinals, Iwami had 18 points to lead the way in a 41-37 win over Tesoro. In their opener, it was Hermann who led the way with 15 points in a 53-35 win over Trabuco Hills. Ta’Amu added 11. In the finals against Mater Dei, Flynn had 21 points, but the offense struggled in the second and third quarters, as Mater Dei took the title with a 58-41 win. The Griffins are back in action this week at the Ocean View High Hawk Holiday Classic. They opened on Tuesday (past our deadline) against Mira Costa and will face Trabuco Hills on Wednesday, Dec. 9.