Lady Barons toy with season sweep over Lady Dons but falter in 55-49 finals setback

EASTLAKE GIRLS HOOPSTERS ADVANCE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS

Bonita Vista's Sylena Peterson is headed to play college basketball at New Mexico State University. Photo by Phillip Brents

The Bonita Vista High School girls basketball team posted some downright superlative statistics during the much-delayed 2020-21 season, including a pair of wins against Cathedral Catholic, which would go on to earn the top seed in this year’s San Diego Section Open Division playoffs after recording a runner-up finish in last year’s Open Division championships.

Bonita Vista defeated the Lady Dons, 69-58, in a tournament game on April 8 and topped host Cathedral Catholic, 75-70, in a non-league game on April 15.

Fate had the teams meet for a third time in last Saturday’s Open Division championship game at Montgomery High School. For the better part of the hugely entertaining contest, it appeared the Lady Barons would make it a clean sweep over the Lady Dons.

But beating a team three times in one season – a long spouted coach’s axiom – reared its ugly head in the dying moments of the game as Cathedral Catholic erased a tenuous 47-46 Bonita Vista lead with 3:56 to play in regulation en route to posting a 55-49 victory.

The Lady Don snapped a 48-all tie with 1:47 to play. The outcome still remained in doubt with Cathedral Catholic holding a 50-48 lead with 50.7 seconds remaining.

But the game slipped through the Lady Barons’ fingers as the Lady Dons recorded a key 5-1 scoring edge in the final 25 seconds.

Junior Insuneh “Ice” Brady got open under the basket for a shot that advanced the score to 52-48.

Bonita Vista senior Sylena Peterson narrowed the Cathedral Catholic lead to 52-49 by sinking a free throw. The game remained within a three-point shot of sending it to overtime.

But senior Alyssa Garcia extended the lead to 53-49 for the Lady Dons with a shot from the charity stripe.

Junior Taryn Johnson put the final nail in Bonita Vista’s coffin on a driving lay-in just before time expired.

“Way too many turnovers and way too many missed free-throws,” Lady Baron head coach Tristan Lamb surmised after the disappointing loss. “That was the difference in the game.”

Bonita Vista’s younger players also contributed in this year’s Open Division championship game. Photo by Phillip Brents

In many ways, the championship game took odd twists and turns.

Fans began spontaneously singing the national anthem when the prerecorded music failed to come on prior to tip-off.

The game itself was played at blazing speed. Bonita Vista seemed to take advantage of the fast pace by twice building 10-point leads in the first quarter. The Lady Barons later extended their lead to 12 points early in the second quarter before settling for a 28-24 halftime advantage.

The second half was nip and tuck as the teams combined for numerous lead changes.

Four successful free-throws by freshman Mahliya Wilson moved Bonita Vista in front 32-27 in the opening moments of the third quarter. A shot by sophomore Madison Canon gave the Lady Barons a 34-29 lead.

But the Lady Dons quickly reversed the momentum to take a 39-34 lead as junior Izzy Navarro dropped in a three-point shot and Johnson broke loose for a driving lay-in.

Bonita Vista responded with a pair of free-throws by Peterson and two shots from the charity stripe from sophomore Kaylyn Buchanon-Lamb to narrow the Cathedral Catholic advantage to 39-38 at the end of the third quarter.

It was still anyone’s game.

The Lady Barons went ahead, 42-41, following a rebound shot by Buchanon-Lamb only to have the Lady Dons retake the lead at 46-42.

Bonita Vista narrowed the score to 46-45 on free-throw shots by Peterson and Canon before taking their last lead of the game.

Two shots from the free-throw line by Garcia flipped the score to 48-27 in favor of Cathedral Catholic.

Peterson then sank one of two foul shots to tie the game.

The final minute of the game was a nightmare ending for the reigning Mesa League champions.

The inability of the Lady Barons to create space between their opponent when the opportunity presented itself proved to be their undoing.

“Whenever we’re up by 10, we want to extend that,” Lamb explained. “But they kept bouncing back. Sylena went down (fell into the stands while chasing a loose ball) and that was tough.”

Peterson led all scorers in the game with 19 points while senior Julia Cosalan ranked next on Bonita Vista’s scoring ledger with 10 points, followed by Wilson and Buchanon-Lamb each with eight points and Canon with four points.

Brady dropped in 16 points for Cathedral Catholic, which earned the No. 4 seed for the Southern California regional playoffs. Garcia followed on the scoresheet with 13 points while Johnson had 12 points and sophomore Gizel Navarro had nine points.

The Lady Barons lose three players to graduation. The Lady Dons lose just one senior off their roster.

Regional playoffs
Bonita Vista received the sixth seed in the Open Division regional playoffs but ended its season with a

56-46 loss at third-seeded Clovis West in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

Mater Dei Catholic received the fifth seed in the Division 2-AA regional playoffs and soared with a 75-59 victory at fourth-seeded Cajon in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. The Lady Crusaders advanced to Thursday’s semifinals against eighth-seeded Paloma Valley (13-4) after Paloma Valley upset top-seeded Righetti (14-3) by a 57-45 score on Tuesday.

Mater Dei Catholic received the No. 8 seed in the section Open Division playoffs but could not get past top-seeded Cathedral Catholic in the quarterfinal round following a 61-54 setback.

The Lady Dons hiked their season record to 20-3 with a 59-53 win over fifth-seeded Harvard-Westlake in Tuesday’s quarterfinals to advance to Thursday’s Open Division semifinals against top-seeded Santa Ana Mater Dei (20-0).

Eastlake’s Valeria Perez (24) shoots over a Burbank Providence defender in Tuesday’s regional playoff game. Photo by Phillip Brents

Lady Titans gain new ground with regional hoops victory

Winning a San Diego Section divisional championship might seem to be the pinnacle for most high school student-athletes.

But being involved in the state playoffs carries its own special memories, especially for players on winning teams.

The Eastlake High School girls basketball team came up three points short in a 48-45 loss to fourth-seeded San Dieguito Academy in last Saturday’s Division II championship game at St, Augustine High School. The third-seeded Lady Titans trailed by 20 points to the Lady Mustangs at one point in the game before reeling off 19 unanswered points to close the gap to a more manageable deficit.

“We started out slow, had a great second half and just ran out of time,” EHS coach David Koopman said.

Time wasn’t a factor in Tuesday’s Southern California Division 4-AA regional quarterfinal game as third-seeded Eastlake (16-9) built a handy 26-18 halftime lead and never let sixth-seeded Burbank Providence (15-6) get any closer than 11 points in the second half.

The Lady Titans took a 34-23 lead into the final quarter before polishing off a 47-33 victory to advance to Thursday’s regional semifinal game at second-seeded Fresno Roosevelt (19-2).

Roosevelt bounced seventh-seeded San Dimas (13-7) from the regional playoffs following a commanding 64-25 victory on Tuesday.

Thursday’s Eastlake-Roosevelt winner will meet either fourth-seeded Agoura (17-5) or eighth-seeded South Pasadena (15-6) in Saturday’s championship game.

South Pasadena eliminated top-seeded Los Angeles CES, 45-41, in Tuesday’s quarterfinals while Agoura topped fifth-seeded King/Drew 44-38.

Sophomore Alana Byler paced Eastlake with 12 points in Tuesday’s victory while junior Valeria Perez dropped in 10 points and sophomore Isabel Flores contributed eight points.

San Dieguito Academy led 33-17 at halftime of the division championship game. The Lady Mustangs were outscored 28-15 in the second half as the Lady Titans mounted their furious comeback bid.

Flores keyed Eastlake with 13 points in the section final. Perez had nine points while senior Ava Belaguer had eight points.

Junior Piper Ligotti paced San Dieguito Academy (15-6) with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the division final while sophomore teammate Quinn O’Donnell collected 10 points in the victory.

Eastlake’s Alana Byler goes up for two points during Tuesday’s regional playoff game. Photo by Phillip Brents

Koopman said Tuesday’s win was special in that it’s not every year his team has managed to land a berth in the state playoffs.

He said this was only the fourth time in his 12 years coaching the team that it was involved in the regionals.

“It doesn’t happen every year,” he said. “We were in the Open Division two years and made it both times and we made it when we won CIF (in 2016). It’s special because it wasn’t supposed to happen. We lost three starters. One of our better girls transferred. One of our other big girls quit. We had only two starters and a bunch of JV girls. Suffice it to say, our expectations were not too high.”

Eastlake finished 6-6 in Mesa League play, placing behind Open Division qualifiers Bonita Vista (12-0 in league, 24-5 overall) and Mater Dei Catholic (10-2 in league, 18-9 overall).

The Lady Titans also lost to Mount Miguel, another Open Division team, to give them five losses against Open Division qualifiers on the season. Otherwise, Eastlake held its own against non-Open Division qualifiers with a more competitive 12-3 record.

“The coaching staff felt we had the talent to compete, but the big thing was convincing the girls they had the talent to do it,” Koopman said.

Eastlake defeated 14th-seeded Madison, 54-35, in its opening round playoff game on June 2, then topped sixth-seeded Helix Charter, 42-25, in the quarterfinal round on June 5. Both teams started slowly out of the game offensively with the Lady Titans holding a tenuous 10-9 lead at halftime. But the hosts got their offense in gear in the second half with 32 points to post the victory.

The win advanced Eastlake to a semifinal date at second-seeded Grossmont on June 9. The visitors won 52-45 to earn a berth in last Saturday’s championship game.

A commanding 21-4 run erased an early 6-2 lead by the host Lady Foothillers (17-6). The visitors built on a 27-20 halftime edge and later held off a late Grossmont rally that had trimmed the Lady Titan lead to three points at the end of the third quarter.

A three-point shot by Cassandra Almendarez tied the game at 38-all for the Grossmont Hills League champions (10-0 in league) early in the fourth quarter, but Eastlake regained command of the game from there with a clutch 14-7 scoring edge down the stretch.

Flores, who tallied 13 points for the winners, hit a three-point shot that seemingly put the game out of reach at 50-41.

“The girls played well in that game,” Koopman said. “Grossmont was a good team, better than the other two teams we played.”

Providence, a semifinalist in the Southern Section Division 4-AA championship playoffs (47-37 loss to eventual champion Agoura), received 15 points from junior Audrey Sayoc.