Throughout the regular season, Oak Park High girls' basketball coach Sean Wallace relied on his star sophomore center Lauren Varney to dictate scoring on both sides of the court.

Apparently, the plans didn't change in the playoffs.

Varney posted team-highs of 19 points and 11 rebounds, surpassing her season averages of 15 and nine, to lead host Oak Park past San Marino 49-41 in a CIF-Southern Section Division II-AA wild-card playoff game.

Oak Park will take its 11-14 record into Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, winners of the Mission League, on Saturday for a first-round matchup. San Marino finished at 12-15.

Helping out Varney was Oak Park's second leading scorer Erin Somers, who hit four 3-pointers for 12 points. Forward Jen Stevens contributed 12 points, including six in the game's final three minutes, and six rebounds.

"When they started taking Lauren out of the game, we had to run some more plays through Erin. Tonight, though, Jen really stepped up for us and made some key plays at the end of the game," said Wallace in his second season as coach.

"It was important to this team to come out here at home and get a win in the playoffs. We have a group that really plays hard together and has great chemistry."

That chemistry showed off early as Oak Park broke out of a menacing, season-long habit of slow starts and jumped out to an 8-0 lead. The defense kept the lead intact throughout the first half, limiting San Marino to just 13 points in the first 16 minutes, and took a 10-point lead into halftime.

"We really wanted to come out to a good start. Once we got the lead, we just wanted to guard their perimeter shooters," said Wallace.

That task seemed to get increasingly difficult in the second half as San Marino captains Nicole Chan and Lauren Oshiro began to hit stride. Chan, who finished with a game-high 20 points and all but two of her team's 15 third-quarter points, led San Marino to within four points twice in the third quarter and five points twice in the fourth.

But that was as close as San Marino could manage.

Varney and Stevens combined for 10 points in the fourth quarter and displayed strong defensive efforts on the defensive side of the floor, making a late San Marino run impossible.

"We really struggled last year, and this win is huge for us," said Wallace. "Notre Dame is a real quality team, but we think we can hang around long enough to have a chance."