Burbank girls’ hoops claims San Marino Tournament
SAN MARINO — Burbank High’s girls’ basketball team won its first four games of the campaign, all of them within the San Marino Tournament and ushering them into the tourney title game.
“Throughout the tournament, we slowly progressed each game and in [the final] we just put it all together,” first-year Burbank Coach John Wells said.
In the championship game against Maranatha, Burbank pulled away in the third quarter to come out on top 52-43 and remain undefeated.
“It means a lot to us starting out 5-0 this season. You’ve got to come out strong, you know,” Bulldog Sarah Sarquiz said. “I think as a team we are just really jelling lately.”
Bulldogs standout Osanna Tirityan led her team with 17 points in the final. The sophomore also took home tournament most valuable player.
“It is a good start for the season,” Tirityan said, “but we have got to keep improving little things.”
Burbank (5-0) led by four at halftime, 22-18, before breaking things open against Maranatha (4-1).
In the pivotal third quarter, the Bulldogs outscored the Minutemen, 16-3. The Burbank lead reached double digits for the first time in the contest when Ani Sarkisyan hit a pull-up jumper near the halfway mark of the third. Maranatha managed just a lone field goal in the quarter, coming in the final minute, to trail, 38-21, going into the final stanza.
“We came out strong [for the second half] after a slow start in the first,” Tirityan said. “I think we pulled it off.”
Sarkisyan joined Tirityan in double digits with 14 points, 10 of which came in the second half, and also had five rebounds. Sabrina Zakarian had six points and fellow senior forward Sarquiz had five. All eight of the Bulldogs who saw action scored at least one point.
“Team win,” Wells said. “I mean we are having eight players who are healthy and eligible to play right now, so everybody gets on the floor. Everybody contributes in certain ways. I couldn’t be happier with the team win. We really came together as a team.”
Zakarian and Sarquiz shared the team honors in the rebounding department, with each pulling down 13.
“I just know where the ball is going,” Sarquiz said. “I have a good eye for that.”
The Minutemen found their offense in the fourth quarter, scoring one more point in the final stanza than they had in the first three quarters combined. Maranatha freshman Patil Yaacoubian poured in 12 of her game-high 20 points in the fourth to lead the way. However, the Minutemen never got closer than eight points, which they accomplished twice. Both Sarkisyan and Tirityan had five points in the fourth to help the Bulldogs seal the win.
“[Maranatha] runs up and down the floor,” Wells, who took over from Bruce Breeden after serving as an assistant coach last season, said. “They press you and you’ve got to stay calm. They want you to get in their trap game with them. We started to get into the trap game with them a little and getting out of control instead of slowing the ball down and attacking. They did a good job of pressing us and we had just enough to hold it off there at the end.”
In the first quarter, Maranatha held a three-point lead with 2:24 to go. After that, Burbank went on a 10-0 run to close out the quarter and double up the Minutemen on the scoreboard, 14-7, after the first.
“It’s a great start for us. I think it has been a while since we started 5-0 in this program,” Wells said. “The girls’ morale is up. We got a lot from this tournament. Teams threw man, threw zone, all different things we want to see going into the [Burroughs] tournament next week.”