Providence girls’ basketball falls short against rival Holy Martyrs
BURBANK — There’s a healthy respect amongst the Providence High and Holy Martyrs girls’ basketball teams.
The Pioneers and Armens have recently dominated the Liberty League, with both teams sharing the league championship last season.
Despite their league rivalry, Providence Coach Andrew Bencze said the teams aren’t afraid to match up during the summer.
“I think both teams like to embrace the challenge of playing each other in the summer,” Bencze said after Providence suffered a 32-30 loss against Holy Martyrs on Thursday in a Providence Summer League contest. “We’re rivals, but there’s a huge amount of respect between the teams.
“It brings out the best of both teams when we play each other. We’re similar programs.”
Providence, which has won seven league championships in a row, cut the lead to 32-30 on a pair of free throws by Christy Hoffman with 36.6 seconds left in the second half.
Providence forced a turnover with 10 seconds left and quickly drove down the court. Hoffman was fouled with 3.5 seconds to go. Unfortunately for Hoffman and the Pioneers, she missed both free-throw attempts before the Armens ran out the clock.
“We had a chance to tie, but we just couldn’t capitalize on that opportunity,” Bencze said. “We just missed getting the rebound off the second free throw.
“These are things that we will be able to correct.”
Holy Martyrs, which won the CIF Southern Section Division V-A championship last season against Faith Baptist, held a 32-25 lead until Providence’s Giselle Camonayan converted a three-pointer from the right side to bring the Pioneers to within 32-28 with 1:17 left in regulation.
Hoffman had a team-high 14 points for the Pioneers , who received seven from Sarah Cox and six from Camonayan.
Cox, a senior post, said the Pioneers are piecing things together throughout the first half of the summer.
“It’s been a challenge, but it’s been a fun challenge,” said Cox, who made a layup to pull Providence to within 25-23 with 6:50 remaining. “We’ve been working hard on fundamentals throughout our practices and taking it into the games.
“We can definitely work on some things, like boxing out. We also see the good things we can do and the chemistry between each player. It’s all about getting better together.”
A basket by Cox brought the Pioneers to within 10-7 with 13:40 remaining in the first half. Holy Martyrs held a 17-11 halftime advantage.
