Early surge leads La Cañada girls’ basketball team to tournament title
LA CAÑADA — It was a spectacular first quarter that propelled the La Cañada High girls’ basketball team to an insurmountable lead and a victory on the final day of 2015.
The Spartans outscored visiting Arcadia by 20 points in the first eight minutes and never looked back in a 69-41 victory Thursday afternoon in the championship game of the ninth annual La Cañada New Year’s Ball Tournament.
With the victory, the CIF Southern Section Division III-A fourth-ranked Spartans continued their torrid start to the season as the team is now 12-1 after capturing its second tournament in three tries.
“They have been working so hard since August,” said first-year La Cañada Coach Sarah Beattie, who took over the program that month. “It means a lot to win these tournaments. It was a goal of theirs to win these tournaments and show well. The fact that they’re able to do it through their own hard work, focus and determination, it means a lot.”
Senior center Amber Graves led all scorers with 16 points and was selected to the all-tournament team along with La Cañada’s Sarah Kurdoghlian, while junior forward Zoe Williams was named the tournament most valuable player.
Graves put on a show in the first quarter, knocking down all seven of her shots in scoring 14 points as the Spartans blew open a 7-4 game with an 18-1 run to take a 25-5 advantage after one quarter.
The only thing stopping Graves from dominating was her foul situation, as she played sparingly after the first quarter, picking up a third foul early in the second quarter and a fourth foul a minute into the third quarter.
“I knew I was going to be taller than just about every player, so just knowing that you have to go in there and be mentally prepared to make every shot you’re going to take,” said the 6-foot-1 Graves, who added five rebounds and two blocks.
Even with Graves out of commission, the Spartans had size galore as the 6-1 Williams added nine points and eight rebounds, 6-foot Emma Stroben chipped in eight points off the bench and 5-10 reserve Georgia Cervenka added seven rebounds.
La Cañada took a 41-17 lead into the break after a four-footer from sophomore Tess Oakley-Stilson, who added 10 points, with 10 seconds remaining off an assist from Brooke Yasuda.
While La Cañada’s offense was on fire in the first half, the defense was equally effective as Arcadia (8-5) was held to mainly perimeter shots as the Apaches only sank five of 27 field goals.
“[Beattie] just said we needed to play really good defense on their shooters because they’re the kind of team that can catch up on three-pointers,” said Kurdoghlian, who added 11 points, nine rebounds and four steals. “With that in our minds, we came out in the second half and made sure they didn’t beat us with their threes.”
The second half wasn’t that different, as the Spartans had a 31-point advantage trimmed to 54-25 after three quarters on a jumper from Arcadia’s Kristi Kodama before the end of the period.
By the start of the fourth, Beattie had inserted her entire bench as nine players contributed at least one point.
Some of the biggest cheers in the fourth came from Williams, who was both elated and surprised to win the tournament MVP honor.
“I guess this just means that all the hard work I put in has paid off,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t get this without getting passes from my guards or the help-defense from my teammates. It’s a team sport and this trophy might say most valuable player, but it should say most valuable team.”
La Cañada’s victory comes on the heels of the team finishing runner-up in the Arroyo Tournament and winning the Crescenta Valley Tournament.
Ashley Sue led Arcadia in scoring with 12 points and was named to the all-tournament team along with the Apaches’ Sahana Saikumar, who finished with nine points.
Hart’s Natalea Daily and Canyon’s Angelina Puno also earned all-tournament team nods.
