Bellarmine-Jefferson girls’ basketball comes up empty against El Rancho
From the opening tip-off, it appeared the Bellarmine-Jefferson girls’ basketball team was out of sync.
Turnovers mounted and the Guards trailed by 16 points in the first quarter.
Though Bell-Jeff made a valiant comeback, it was unable to complete its rally and suffered a 61-53 loss against El Rancho on Tuesday in a West Coast Holiday Festival game at Burbank High.
“I could tell exactly what is was,” said Bell-Jeff Coach Claudia Villa, who guided the Guards to an appearance in the CIF Southern Section Division VI championship last season. “First, we only have eight players and we got pressed defensively. Also, we haven’t really played that many games.
“It’s the little things, like passing. Our passing was off. We always start our practices working on our passing. We’ll do it again and find out what went wrong because a lot of our turnovers came off bad passes.”
El Rancho (8-2) held a 23-7 lead with two minutes to go in the first quarter. Bell-Jeff (7-3) could get no closer than 36-34 with 3:24 left in the third quarter.
“I think we got shocked in the first quarter and we were so far behind,” said Bell-Jeff’s Cosette Balmy, who finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and four steals. “We weren’t getting good shots early on and then we saw what we needed to fix.
“We did everything we could to get back into the game. I think the one thing we’ll learn from this is that we have to play very hard right from the beginning.”
El Rancho took a 23-7 lead on a basket by Brittany Corona with 2:02 to play in the first quarter.
A basket by Balmy at the buzzer pulled Bell-Jeff to within 36-28 at halftime.
Dalila Rincan of Bell-Jeff made a shot from the left side to cut the deficit to 36-34 just past the midway point of the third quarter. But El Rancho held a 43-39 advantage through the third quarter.
The Dons then opened the fourth quarter up on a 10-2 run to grab a 53-41 lead. Nicole Mercado of El Rancho made a three-pointer to cap the run with five minutes remaining.
El Rancho received 15 points from Corona, 13 points and eight rebounds from Amy Navarro, 10 points and three steals from Destiny Reyes and nine points and three steals from Mercado.
Bell-Jeff got 19 points from Rincan, eight points and eight rebounds from Claire Borot and four points and eight rebounds from Kayla Ginyard.
“While the start was a negative, I did see some positive things,” Villa said. “I liked the way we came back and Kayla was the one who got us going because she stepped up her game. The turnovers we committed are things that can be addressed and then cleaned up.”
Bell-Jeff will compete in a tournament consolation contest at noon Wednesday against a team to be determined at Burroughs High.
