TORRANCE — Three minutes into Saturday night’s CIF Southern Section Division 5 second-round playoff game, the Torrance girls basketball team looked out of sorts on both ends of the court and trailed visiting Fountain Valley by six points.

Things would turn around.

Kaya Choi scored four consecutive points and Karissa Sasaki hit a 3-pointer to give the Tartars a lead, setting the path toward a 53-26 win Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals.

Torrance (17-13) will host Godinez in the quarterfinal round Wednesday.

Choi’s layup late in the first quarter, gave the Tartars their first lead of the game and they wouldn’t relinquish it.

“We started off sluggish,” Torrance coach Bob Varnell said. ” Sometimes playing front of your home crowd and your friends you get a little nervous. It was a big game, you lose now you go home.

“Once you calmed down and get that out of your mindset, once we got the nerves shaken and realized it was just another game, we were able to go out and play hard and just see what happens. Kaya (Choi) is our engine, as she goes we go. The nice thing about that is that it opens up the outside. We got a strategy of shooting the first open look. When you catch the bill and you’re in rhythm you shoot it. Karissa got hot then Olivia (Wang) got hot and hit some shots from the outside and then Kaya dominated the middle which is really nice.”

On the defensive end, Torrance shut down Fountain Valley’s leading scorer Sophie Hsich holding her to only two points in the game and forced 25 Baron turnovers. The only offense Fountain Valley (17-15) found was from senior Kailey Nisch, who hit three 3-pointers and finished the game with nine points.

Leading 25-14 to start the second half, Torrance blitzed Fountain Valley with an 11-2 run. Sasaki hitting two 3-pointers during the run and Wang hitting one.

Sasaki finished the game with 11 points and three steals.

“We pushed tempo a lot which caught them off-guard and it allowed us to push the lead,” Sasaki said. “Our coaches stress defense a lot. It is the focus of our team. Our coach says if we have good defense we are going to win.

“It feels really good (to win the first two playoff games). I think I shot the ball really well and trusted my teammates to get me the ball.”

Choi started the fourth quarter with three driving layups, helping the Tartars increase their lead to 47-22. Choi finished the game with 17 points.

“When we got down early I told my team we needed to pick up the energy,” Choi said. “Our mindset changed and we started locking in on defense and we started to roll.

“Our coach told us at halftime that we needed to come out with energy to start the third quarter and we did that and were able to stretch the lead out. Our success is a really big thing because we are like a family. I want to keep playing with my family and go all the way.”

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