Holy Family basketball shut down by St. Genevieve
BURBANK — The Holy Family basketball team has been going through a transition during summer league play.
The Gaels are trying to find their way after the graduation of their best player and leading scorer, Tabitha Ruiz, an all-league selection and the squad’s offensive focal point last season.
Holy Family is also looking to find its way under new coach Gayle Lachica, who took over for Greg Ziomek.
The team’s growing pains were revealed Thursday afternoon when the Gaels suffered a 29-10 loss to St. Genevieve in a Providence Summer League game.
Struggles in the first 20-minute half proved to be too much for the Gaels to overcome, as they were shut out in the stanza by the Valiants, 23-0.
“Maybe you wouldn’t think so with our score today, but we’re playing a lot better than the first few games when we started this summer,” said Lachica, a former all-league player for Holy Family who graduated in 2011. “I think our first game was something like 37-2, so we have definitely seen improvement.
“I told the girls as long as we’re moving forward and not regressing that’s really what I’m looking for. I don’t care how may points that we may lose by, as long as we’re learning and taking those steps to get better, then I’m satisfied.”
Holy Family, which went 7-6 and placed fifth in the Horizon League and didn’t qualify for the CIF Southern Section playoffs last season, took on a St. Genevieve team that graduated just two seniors. The Valiants had a 19-10 record, captured the Santa Fe League championship and advanced to the second round of the Division IV-A playoffs.
“We want to play against the better teams,” Lachica said. “We have to play teams that are better than us if we want to get better as a team.
“This summer we’ve been working on our conditioning and trying to improve our skills. We just need to get quicker as a team, that’s really important.”
Holy Family received six of its 10 points from Doris Rivera, who also had 10 rebounds. Ally Blanco added two points, Rosie Acevedo had a free throw and added 11 rebounds and Kaitlyn Blanco added a free throw, eight rebounds and two steals.
The Gaels struggled in the first half. Along with missing all 21 of their shots from the field, they also committed 10 turnovers.
“It’s hard for us because, since Tabitha left, we can’t play the same way we did when we had her and we have to find a different way to play,” Rivera said. “We depended a lot on her, but now we have to form our team now without her.
“It has helped practicing a lot and playing games in summer, especially against tougher teams. We are also using summer to bond and kind of come together as a team.”
In the second half, the Gaels finally broke the shutout when Kaitlyn Blanco sank the second of two free throws with 18:10 remaining, breaking a 21-minute 50-second scoreless streak. Holy Family made its first basket from the field with 14:04 left when Rivera scored on a put-back in the lane.
Holy Family, which converted four of its 39 shots, played better in the second half and outscored the Valiants, 10-6. St. Genevieve converted just three of 22 shots in the second half.
“We did play better in the second half,” Lachica said. “In that first half, I think that the intensity that St. Gens plays with was tough for us. St. Gens was a bit more aggressive than some of the teams that we’ve played and we just have to readjust to that.”
