Burbank girls’ basketball can’t capture silver

BURBANK — The central purpose of playing in early season tournaments is to ready a team for league play, but Burbank High’s girls’ basketball team found itself with a chance to also take home some championship hardware in the silver division final of the Burroughs Tournament against Brentwood.

On Saturday evening in the title contest, Brentwood went at the Bulldogs on both ends of the court en route to winning the game with relative ease, 59-40.

“We just showed our inexperience,” Burbank Coach Bruce Breeden said. “A little pressure and a lack of leadership and that is what you get. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board.”

Throughout the contest, Burbank (7-2) could not contain the inside-out combination of Eagles forward Dani Shapiro and guard AJ Simmons. The tandem combined for 49 points, including the first 25 points of the game for Brentwood (8-1). Simmons was named the silver division MVP.

“They had two players and we knew we needed to stop them and nobody stepped up and did it,” Breeden said. “We did not do our job tonight.”

The Bulldogs took their only lead of the night when Burbank’s Christina Mkrtchyan drained a long jumper for the game’s first points. After that, Simmons and Shapiro took turns making field goals until Simmons hit a three pointer as time expired to give her team a 17-11 advantage after one.

Simmons, a junior, had nine points in the quarter on the way to a game-high 30.

Shapiro, who earned a spot on the all-tournament team, had eight in the opening period on the way to 19 for the night. Imani Shackelford, who had two points against Burbank, was also named to the all-tournament team.

“This is the best team we played the whole tournament,” Breeden, whose team finished third in the San Marino Tournament earlier this season, said.

Burbank shot a respectable 45% in the first quarter, but fell off in the second, making only two field goals and shooting 13%. At the same time, Simmons and Shapiro stayed on the attack, scoring 11 and six points, respectively in the second quarter, in which the Eagles outscored the Bulldogs, 19-7. On the strength of the efforts of Simmons and Shapiro, Brentwood had Burbank doubled up on the scoreboard at the break, 36-18, with the pair accounting for all but two of those points.

The Bulldogs, who shot 25% from the floor for the game, were led in the scoring department by Osanna Tirityan and Mkrtchyan, who each scored 12. Tirityan, a freshman who also led her team in points in their semifinal win over Maranatha on Friday, was named to the all-tournament team. In the final, Sabrina Zakarian contributed seven points. Bulldogs senior Lenneah Hope-Pasion came off the bench to score five points.

Trailing by 18 at the break, the Bulldogs played even with Brentwood in the third quarter until the final moments. With three seconds to go, Simmons sank two free throws to push the advantage back to 20 for the second time in the period.

Eagle A’riah Bell scored the first two points of the fourth quarter to push the lead to its peak at 22. However, in total, the Bulldogs took the final period, 10-9, as both teams spread playing time around.

“We need to work harder in practice or we’ll have several more outcomes like this,” Breeden said.