Providence girls’ basketball outlasts St. Genevieve for first-round win
BURBANK — For the second time this season, the Providence High girls’ basketball team played to a thriller with visiting St. Genevieve.
The Pioneers prevailed both times, the latest in a CIF Southern Section Division 4-A first-round meeting.
Similarities between the two games were plentiful, most importantly though it was defense in both games that secured the victory for the Pioneers, including a 52-49 win Thursday evening at Providence High School.
The win clinched a berth in the second round, where the Pioneers will travel to Catalina Island to take on Avalon on Saturday.
“We’re hitting our stride,” Pioneers coach Andrew Bencze said. “We’re excited and looking forward to playing on Saturday.”
Thursday’s game naturally had a playoff atmosphere, in front of a raucous crowd at Providence. The intensity was the catalyst for a plethora of foul calls, resulting in a combined 57 free throw attempts.
Remarkably, Providence (20-7) made more free throws (18) than field goals (16).
Both coaches were pleased that the game was called evenly, as St. Genevieve (13-14) attempted just three more free throws. It was so even that both teams’ respective playmakers fouled out: Providence’s Melissa Zozulenko and St. Genevieve’s Polina Kovaleva.
Zozulenko sat for the entirety of the second quarter after picking up three fouls in the first quarter. The rest of the Pioneers, particularly Ava Yood-Howard, came up huge in the second without their leading scorer.
Yood-Howard scored all 11 of her points in the frame, leading the team in outscoring the Valiants, 16-10, and taking a 34-23 at the half.
“It came down to us having better depth,” Bencze said. “We has three starters in the second quarter with three fouls. The bench stepped up.
“We’re built for that.”
Providence maintained a comfortable cushion until late in the game.
Similarly to their first meeting with the Valiants, the offense went cold in the waning moments, leaving it to defense to make big plays.
Shortly after Zozulenko (19 points) fouled out with 3:27 remaining, St. Genevieve’s Dalila Rincan led an 11-2 run, capped off by a Genesis Avina three-pointer to cut the Pioneers lead down to 52-49 with 14.5 seconds on the clock.
Providence missed three free throw attempts to clinch the game, but prevented the Valiants from putting up a potential game-tying attempt, rather forcing a turnover that went to Yood-Howard as time expired.
“We beat them before so we came into it with a winning mindset,” said the sophomore, who finished with three steals. “We had a lot of energy and played well together.”