Burroughs girls’ basketball sees season come to end in CIF semifinals
It was a familiar situation for the Burroughs High girls’ basketball team Saturday night.
For the second straight season, the Indians found themselves in the South Bay, playing in a CIF Southern Section Division I-A semifinal against a top-four seed. Another similarity was foul trouble for Burroughs.
Just a season earlier, Burroughs advanced to its first final four, but lost to No. 4 West Torrance.
This time, the Indians were going up against the No. 1 seed Mira Costa, and taking on the Mustangs on their home floor.
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Although Saturday’s effort was a much closer game throughout, the result was the same for the Indians. Burroughs got into early foul trouble and experienced late shooting woes in dropping the semifinal contest to Mira Costa, 47-39.
Burroughs, which captured its fourth straight Pacific League championship, ended the season with a 24-8 record. The loss also snapped a 17-game winning streak that dated back to Dec. 31.
“The foul trouble threw us off because I had three players on the bench in foul trouble early,” said Burroughs Coach Vicky Oganyan, whose team lost to West Torrance in 2015, 54-31. “The same thing happened to us last year.”
For Mira Costa (22-8), which finished runner-up in the Bay League behind powerhouse Redondo Union, it will make its third straight appearance in a championship game. In last season’s Division II-A title game, the Mustangs were beaten by Redondo, 60-37.
Burroughs was missing its leading rebounder, 6-foot-4 sophomore Marin Grote, who was taking part in a club volleyball tournament out of state.
The Indians had problems containing Mira Costa’s 6-0 post player, junior Allie Navarette, who had 25 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Particularly impressive was her performance at the free-throw line, as she converted 14 of 16, and was able to get a rebound on one of the shots she missed.
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“I have been practicing my free-throw shooting so much and I know it could be really important in a game like this,” Navarette said. “I knew I had to perform well. I just try and block all the noise and all the yelling out because when you’re at the line it’s just you and the ball.”
Burroughs received 12 points, six rebounds and three steals from senior Brooke Radcliff. Senior teammate Jordan Meltzer added eight points.
It was a rocky start for Burroughs, which came out aggressively, leading to a slew of fouls. The Mustangs were in the bonus with 2:55 left in the first quarter. That aided Mira Costa in taking a 13-10 lead after one quarter.
In the second quarter, starters Radcliff, Meltzer and senior Abbey Ibarra all picked up their third fouls. However, the Indians played evenly with the Mustangs in the stanza and trailed at halftime by just three, 26-23. The Indians had a lead in the second, 18-13, after an 8-0 run with 5:49 left.
After Laura Sheckler scored the first four points of the game for Mira Costa, Navarette tallied 19 of her team’s next 22 points in the first half.
“That foul trouble definitely took some of their best players out,” Mira Costa Coach John Lapham said. “They are a very aggressive team and the way they play… I think that early trouble hurt them.
“But Burroughs had a very good game plan and they are a very good team. They just play hard and you got to love a team that plays hard.”
Burroughs took the lead again in the third quarter, 34-33, with 31 seconds left on a three-pointer by Meltzer. The teams were knotted at 34 after three.
In the fourth, the Indians went in front, 35-34, with 7:46 left. However, the Mustangs surged back ahead, 38-36, at the 6:48 mark and never relinquished the lead. Burroughs converted just one of six shots in the fourth.
“We had a few match-up problems and their big girl got the best of us, obviously,” Oganyan said. “We had a game plan and we came out and did our best.
“We had some opportunities at the end of the game in the fourth and we just couldn’t score.”
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports
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