Flintridge Prep girls’ hoops goes cold in third quarter, loses to Ribet Academy

LOS ANGELES — It was a nightmare third quarter that ended a dream season for the Flintridge Prep girls’ basketball team Saturday evening.

The visiting third-seeded Rebels were outscored by 14 points in the third and never recovered, losing to second-seeded host Ribet Academy, 46-39, in the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA semifinals.

PHOTOS: Flintridge Prep falls to Ribet Academy, 46-39, in CIF-SS semifinal

With the victory, the Fighting Frogs earned a berth to next weekend’s divisional championship game.

Prep League champion Flintridge Prep ended its CIF-SS season with a 24-2 record, but is still alive for a CIF State Division V playoff berth, which won’t be announced until March 8.

“It was a great run to go [24-2],” said Flintridge Prep co-Coach Kevin Kiyomura, who shared the duties with sister Jayme Chan. “It just didn’t go the way we would have liked at the end. Still, it’s a great season.”

Flintridge Prep last led at halftime, 21-20, over the Fighting Frogs despite a wonderful performance from junior center Celine Bolton-Ford, who had 11 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks at the half.

The center was a total game-changer in finishing with 14 points, 20 rebounds, seven blocks and five assists.

All it took was eight minutes for freelance entrant Ribet (22-9) to erase two quarters of work from Flintridge Prep and render the fourth nearly pointless by almost blanking the Rebels.

Flintridge Prep committed six turnovers in the third quarter versus forcing no takeaways in being outscored, 16-2, and trailing, 36-23.

Sophomore guard Jhazmin Joson (22 points) hit a close jumper to give the Fighting Frogs a 22-21 advantage.

Ribet added a layup to take a three-point lead before the Rebels countered with a runner through the lane from senior Lacy Coan off an assist from Natalie Rozman with 4:52 left to bring the Rebels within 24-23.

The bucket proved the final of the quarter for the Rebels and wouldn’t be followed up for over five minutes.

Perhaps a symbol of the changing tides came for Flintridge Prep on its next two possessions of the quarter, as the Rebels missed four straight free-throw attempts and never tied, nor took the lead.

In the meanwhile, a cold-shooting Ribet squad finally caught fire with threes from Joson and Elise Ortega to take a 30-23 lead. Eventually, the Fighting Frogs scored the last 12 points of the quarter.

“I just told the girls they just had to turn it up,” said Ribet Coach Tim Brown. “Flintridge Prep is no joke. They’re an excellent basketball team, well-coached and they were hungry.”

Up 13 points to start the final quarter, Ribet took a 45-27 advantage with 2:50 remaining in the game.

The Rebels made a last gasp, scoring 12 of the game’s final 13 points, but still fell short.

“We tried as hard as we could and scored some points to make it close, but Ribet was a good team,” said Rebels senior Tyler Faulkner, who scored seven points. “That center they had changed the game. We’re a slashing team and she made us have to shoot from the perimeter.”

While the Rebels did take the majority of their shots from outside the paint, perhaps what stung the most was their poor free-throw shooting.

Flintridge Prep finished six for 15 from the charity stripe.

“I think the difference is playing three rounds at home and playing our first game on the road,” Kiyomura said of the reason behind the free-throw shooting.

Rozman led the Rebels with nine points, scoring all her offense in a first half in which she hit three of four three-point tries.

Taylor Yoshida added seven points for Flintridge Prep, while Coan contributed five points and 11 rebounds. Tala Ismail tallied five points and 12 rebounds.

“This is a tough loss,” said Rebels sophomore Ranae Tamura, who finished with four points, “but we’re young and we’ll learn from this.”