SIMI VALLEY, T.O. GIRLS PUSH FOR TEAMWORK IN POSTSEASON PLAY.

Byline: Bryan Winchell Special to the Daily News

The stars of the girls basketball teams at Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks high schools say teamwork rather than individual talent is the key to success in the Southern Section playoffs.

"(With everyone scoring) I can relax and rely on someone else if I'm having a tough night," said Thousand Oaks standout Jenn Detmer.

Simi Valley's Tawnee Cooper agrees that the postseason pressure turns down a notch when the whole team contributes.

In Simi Valley's 69-48 first-round Division IAA win over Santa Monica Saturday night, the Pioneers had five players with nine or more points.

During the season, that kind of balance helped the two-time Ventura County scoring champion set a school record for the most points by an individual in a season and led the team to a school record for most points in a season (currently 2,002, or 74.1 points per game).

"Everyone knows Tawnee can score. (Balance) just gives them another thing to think about," coach Dave Murphy said.

Balance on offense aside, good defense will be critical as Simi Valley travels to Long Beach Poly for a Division IAA second-round game and Thousand Oaks prepares to take on Edison at home for a IA quarterfinal.

"We have to do two things: play real solid defense and not get lost in their rotation (offense) and distribute the points around," Thousand Oaks coach Chuck Brown said.

One player who has stepped up to help Detmer is forward Courtney Miller, an outstanding volleyball player who has had a solid season for the Lancers basketball team.

In the Santa Monica game, Simi Valley's Murphy was happy with the defensive efforts of Jamie Griffin and sisters Angela and Christina Mossesso, but the team's overall effort was lacking at times.

In fact, Murphy wasn't completely pleased with his team's first-round mental focus, especially after it built a 30-point lead.

"I firmly believe to win a championship you've got to play good defense," the Pioneers coach said.

For the Lancers (24-5), their 43-33 second-round win over Hart had its troublesome moments as well, as the Indians closed a seven-point deficit to one in the third quarter. However, the Lancers held tight and stretched their lead to 10 points.

Both Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks have survived the first round, but the deeper into the playoffs they go the more difficult their opponents will be.

That's certainly the case with Edison (21-7 and Sunset League co-champions) for Thousand Oaks, and with Long Beach Poly (12-11 and second-place in the tough Moore League) for Simi Valley.

"Poly is very athletic, they are much bigger than us and are defending IAA champions," Murphy said. "(Their record) is very deceiving. They are definitely a team that can beat us."

Said Brown: "Edison is very good fundamentally. They aren't very tall but I know they are a good team because they are in a tough league."

Edison's leaders are Marie Philman, point guard Kerry O'Bric and Shawna Steward, while Poly is led by 6-2 center Jackie Moore, 5-8 forward Kanesha Sanders and Jaliane Jackson, a potent outside shooter.

Cooper said she and her teammates are going to take one step at a time and not worry too much about who their opponents might be at each level.

"The playoffs are fun with the travel and different schools you play," Cooper said. "We just have to play our game - we know we can run on them - and execute our plays and we'll do well."

Detmer has a similar approach to Cooper's.

"We know if we play tough, don't get intimidated, don't play selfishly and be patient, we'll do fine," Detmer said.

In other girls basketball games for area teams, Moorpark (23-0) takes its undefeated record to Newport Harbor for a Division IIIAA quarterfinal game. All games start at 7:30 p.m.