 |
|||||
|
Sea Hawk girls record streak ends with quarter finals loss
by Paul Teetor
|
Redondo forward Jasmine Arjasbi gets aggressive against an equally aggressive Muir defender. Photo by Ray Vidal |
The Redondo girls basketball team was terrific for 24 minutes Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, high school games are still 32 minutes long.
But for the first three quarters of their Division III-AA semifinal game Saturday night, the Redondo girls used the hot scoring of Ofa Tulikihihifo and the floor leadership of Jackie Packard to run up a 14 point lead on John Muir High School.
Then Packard went down with an ankle injury, they couldn’t get the ball to Tulikihihifo, and the referees made several controversial calls against them. The result: a heartbreaking 63-62 overtime loss.
"I’m very disappointed, but I’m not taking it as hard as some of the kids are," coach Marcelo Enriquez said. "Maybe it’s because I know I’ll be back next year. But for the seniors who won’t be back, and for Jackie in particular, this was a really tough way to end their high school careers."
The loss also ended a school record 17 game win streak and prevented the Seahawks from matching last year’s feat of winning the CIF southern sectionals.
In the beginning, it looked like the Seahawk streak would stretch to 18 games. They came out smoking and led 31-24 at halftime behind 13 points from Tulikihihifo and Packard’s steady handle.
The lead ballooned to 14 points in the third quarter when suddenly Packard stumbled and went down with an ankle injury.
"There was no big collision. I didn’t even see what happened," Enriquez said. "Suddenly she’s hobbling off the floor. She’s a kid who can really tolerate pain, and I thought she would walk it off. But it turned out to be worse than I thought."
Despite losing Packard, the Seahawks managed to post a 46-35 lead at the end of the third quarter. Then Muir turned up the defensive pressure and Redondo didn’t have its usual answer.
"Jackie is a fearless leader. When the game gets close, she has no fear about going to the basket or doing whatever she has to do to keep us going," Enriquez said. "We missed her terribly in that fourth quarter."
Not only did Packard’s exit hurt the Hawks, it gave new hope to the suddenly revived Muir Mustangs. As the gap closed, the Seahawks turned the ball over repeatedly, Muir hit three trifectas, and their 6-3 center Cyesha Fluker kept piling up inside hoops on her way to a game-high 31 points. To make matters worse, Tulikhihifo only touched the ball once in the fourth quarter and did not score.
"In those last three minutes, we were playing not to lose rather than making plays to win the game," Enriquez said. "I don’t know if it was their pressure defense or us just not making the right pass at the right time, but we stopped Ofa ourselves by not giving her the ball. That was the heartbreaking thing about this game."
With 3 seconds left in the game and Redondo clinging to a 2-point lead, Fluker hit a turnaround jumper to tie the game. Then a questionable late foul was called on the shot.
"I had an issue with that call. If she hits the foul shot they win the game," Enriquez said.
But Fluker missed the foul shot, and the two teams battled on into overtime. With nine seconds left in OT and the game tied, Allison Bretana went to the foul line for two shots. She hit the first to give Redondo a one-point lead, but missed the second.
There was a mad scramble for the rebound. Fluker appeared to have it, but the ball was batted out of her hands and Tulikhihifo grabbed it. Before she could shoot the ref called a loose ball foul on Redondo and the two teams marched to the other end of the court so Fluker could shoot two foul shots. ER
"It was the same ref who made the earlier call that killed us," Enriquez said. "If it was a different guy I could live with it a little easier."
Fluker hit both shots to put Muir up 63-62. Redondo had one last chance to win when Jasmine Arjasbi launched a foul line jumper, but it missed as the buzzer sounded.
The shocking overtime loss did not detract from the season’s success. The Seahawks finished with an overall record of 24-5 and a Bay League record of 14-0.
"I’m real proud of the things we accomplished this year. We played by far one of the toughest schedules in California," Enriquez said. "And next year we’ll be even better, with eight of our top ten players, including Ofa, returning." ER