Buena Calls a Board Meeting Against Ocean View : Prep basketball: Bulldogs turn offensive rebounds into easy baskets to advance to girls’ Southern Section Division I-A final.

Any supposition that the Ocean View High girls’ basketball team would be able to contain Buena’s big front line in the Southern Section Division I-A semifinal game between the teams Wednesday night at Marina High was quickly put to rest.

The third-seeded Bulldogs (26-2) scored their first 11 points on offensive rebounds and dominated the boards all night in cruising to a 61-42 victory over Ocean View (22-7).

The victory moves Buena into the division final Saturday night against top-seeded Thousand Oaks (27-1) at UC Irvine’s Bren Center. Thousand Oaks defeated Buena, 67-57, in last year’s final.

“It’s just real critical to be effective (with the offensive rebounds) if we want to beat Thousand Oaks,” Buena Coach Joe Vaughan said.

The Bulldogs used their size advantage to get easy baskets all night, particularly from 6-foot forward Michelle Giordano. The sophomore scored a game-high 27 points, including 14 on offensive rebounds or layups that came after she posted up low against smaller defenders.

Those close-range shots helped Buena shoot 43.6% from the field (24 of 55), while the Seahawks had to settle for outside shots that failed to fall. The Seahawks made only 14 of 49 shots (28.5%) in the game.

“We shot 45% on the year from the field,” Ocean View Coach Ollie Martin said. “If we could have done a better job of shooting, we could have been right there.”

As it was, Ocean View was never in the game. Buena jumped to a 13-6 lead after one quarter and held a 27-18 advantage at the half. Giordano, who also had a team-high 12 rebounds, scored 15 of her points in the first half.

Buena went to the inside game again in the third quarter, scoring all of its points from close range. Center April Buck, who is 6-2, made the only outside basket for the Bulldogs on a 15-foot jump shot with 1 minute 28 seconds left in the quarter. That put Buena ahead, 45-28.

Julie Hardy, a 6-2 junior forward, added 10 points for Buena.

Center Nikki Vivion, who at 5-11 is the tallest Ocean View starter, scored 12 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds.