La Cañada girls’ basketball survives late scare from St. Paul

LA CAÑADA — On a night when the home invincibility of the La Cañada High girls’ basketball team was challenged by the comeback spirit of visiting St. Paul, the Spartans proved once again that they have more than a little bit of magic in their gym.

St. Paul junior forward Francesca Facchini was just long on a straightaway three-point bucket with three seconds remaining that allowed the Spartans to come away with a thrilling 50-49 victory in the CIF State Southern California Regional Semifinals at La Cañada High on Tuesday evening.

With the win, the second-seeded Spartans (29-4), the Rio Hondo League champions, earned advancement to Saturday’s Southern California Championships at Ontario Colony High at 2 p.m. versus a familiar foe in top-seeded Antelope Valley.

The Antelopes (29-2) won their 27th straight game by defeating Long Beach St. Anthony, 59-53, in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

Antelope Valley is 2-0 versus La Cañada this season, including defeating the Spartans, 59-46, for the CIF Southern Section Division III-A championship at Godinez Fundamental High on March 4.

“I’m really proud of the way we pulled that one out,” La Cañada first-year Coach Sarah Beattie said of Tuesday’s win. “That was a hard, hard game to fight because [St. Paul] is a great team and they’re athletic, quick, they run hard, they shoot amazingly.”

Spartans senior guard Sarah Kurdoghlian tied for the game-high honors with 20 points and eight rebounds, while junior guard Alexi Nazarian added 12 points.

St. Paul was led by its duo of junior guard Nalon Smith, who finished with 20 points and six rebounds, and by Facchini, who tallied 18 points.

The game seemed all but over when Nazarian drained two free throws with 47.6 seconds left to give the Spartans a 50-42 lead.

St. Paul, which rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat Duarte on a Facchini three-pointer for the CIF-SS Division IV-AA title, answered back.

Jurhandi Molina hit a jumper with 32.8 seconds left and then the Swordsmen caught a break when the Spartans were fouled and missed the front end of a bonus situation.

The missed free throw led to another basket from Molina off an assist from Smith with 19.9 seconds left, as the Swordsmen pulled to within 50-46 and burned their final timeout.

Out of the break, St. Paul junior Tia Banks stole a pass in the Spartans back court and kicked to Facchini, who buried a three-pointer with 11 seconds left to suddenly bring the Swordsmen

within 50-49.

Again St. Paul fouled and again the Spartans clanked a free throw that was rebounded and taken the other way for Facchini’s 22-footer that just missed and kicked up and over the backboard with 1.9 seconds left.

La Cañada was able to inbound the subsequent possession, was fouled with .7 seconds left and miss two free throws as the game ended shortly after.

“I thought she was going to make it,” St. Paul Coach Robert Miller said of Facchini. “She had made two in two other big games, plus she hit the one in the corner to put us in that spot to win.”

The victory improved La Cañada’s home record to a perfect 16-0 in what was the final game in La Cañada as the last two rounds of the state playoffs will be at a neutral site.

“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but coach has been preparing us for those situations and we survived,” Nazarian said. “We were just able to hold on.”

The Spartans led, 24-23, at the break, but then nearly ran away with the game.

La Cañada embarked on a 17-0 run that began in the second quarter and culminated on a three-pointer from Kurdoghlian off an assist from cousin Kristina Kurdoghlian with 2:10 left in the third that gave the Spartans a 39-23 lead.

To its credit, St. Paul closed out the third with an 11-2 spurt capped on three-pointer from Smith to trail, 41-34, after three.

The Swordsmen eventually closed to within 48-42 on a triple from Facchini with 1:22 left before La Cañada went back up by eight.

Amber Graves added nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks for La Cañada.

“We were up by eight and I think we were a little too comfortable,” Sarah Kurdoghlian said. “I think that’s what we need to fix. We need to finish stronger and hit our free throws.”