Romp toward Rio Hondo League title continues for La Cañada girls’ basketball
Resistance is starting to look futile in the Rio Hondo League, at least in the case of girls’ basketball.
What appears to be little more than a romp to a league title continued for La Cañada High Wednesday afternoon in the Hoops for Hope charity game.
The Spartans jumped out to a 24-point halftime lead and defeated reigning two-time league champion South Pasadena, 72-42, while simultaneously snapping the Tigers’ 21-game league winning streak.
With the victory, the CIF Southern Section Division III-A third-ranked Spartans improved to 16-2 overall and 3-0 in league with impressive wins over Temple City (74-32) and San Marino (65-24) already under their belt.
“We’ve been playing at a high level for the last couple of weeks, so the score isn’t surprising,” first-year La Cañada Coach Sarah Beattie said. “I know what the team is capable of and we’ve been running the floor really well. I know what we can do and the team is playing with an incredible amount of confidence.”
Maybe the best part of Wednesday’s contest was the fact that all proceeds raised for the game and concessions would be donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Other than that, the game was all but over at halftime.
La Cañada built a quick lead behind the inside presence of the 6-foot-1 tandem of Zoe Williams and Amber Graves.
Williams led all scorers with 18 points to go with eight rebounds and four blocks, while Graves tallied 15 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
“We wanted to have a really good start to the game,” Williams said. “We wanted to establish ourselves inside and get the offense going and we did that.”
Graves assisted Sarah Kurdoghlian (nine points) for a lay-up as the Spartans led, 14-2, with 4:30 left in the first quarter.
To its credit, No. 8 South Pasadena (8-5, 2-1) rallied and closed to within 21-13 on a pair of free throws from Kristina Kafkaloff with 12.7 seconds left in the first. La Cañada eventually closed the quarter up, 23-13, on a lay-up from junior Alexi Nazarian, who added 15 points.
While La Cañada opened the second quarter with a runner from Kurdoghlian, South Pasadena countered with a three-pointer from Jade Lin (team-high 14 points) to pull within 25-16 with 6:54 left in the quarter.
Lin’s shot was memorable given that it was the last field goal for nearly the rest of the half, as La Cañada embarked on a game-changing 17-0 run fueled by four points each from Graves, Williams and Nazarian.
Lin eventually ended her team’s drought with a floater before the half, but the Tigers trailed, 42-18, at the break.
“We have some games like this where you take a 20-, 30-point lead,” Graves said. “That can’t really change how we play especially because the other team can turn around and score 20, 30 points to get back. You can’t assume you’re going to win yet.”
La Cañada didn’t let up in the second half, as the Spartans jumped out to a 51-22 advantage on a jumper from Kristina Kurdoghlian with 4:18 left in the quarter.
Shortly after the make, Beattie inserted her bench, which allowed South Pasadena to go on a small run and close out the third down, 56-33.
“This win was an important one for us,” Nazarian said. “We have a goal to win league and you have to beat South Pasadena. We’re playing well, but we can’t let up.”
