Girls’ basketball: Even the small stand tall in Redondo victory
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Needing a victory Thursday in order to have any chance of winning an eighth Bay League title in nine seasons, Redondo came through in a big way by scoring a 46-38 victory over Mira Costa on the hostile floor of the Mustangs.
Redondo (20-2), No. 8 in The Times’ ranking, has a game looming with No. 1 Long Beach Poly on Saturday, but that didn’t get in the way of avenging an earlier 53-48 upset to No. 7 Mira Costa (19-4).
The Sea Hawks got a team-high 16 points from an unusual source: Joylyn Ichiyama, at 5 feet 1 the smallest player on the team. She scored twice as many as Redondo’s leading scorer on the season, UCLA -bound Atonye Nyingifa. It was the first time this season that Nyingifa has not led the team in scoring, according to Tony Ciniglio of the Daily Breeze. But that’s how important this game was to the eight Sea Hawks seniors. Everyone stepped up.
The Mustangs went into this game ranked No. 1 in Division I-A, while Redondo was ranked No. 2. Both teams are now 7-1 in league, and if they win out will share the league title. For Redondo, it will be the eighth in nine years, and fourth in a row.
The last time Redondo failed to win a league title was in 2004, the season that Lori Rayford transferred from Lynwood to Morningside for her senior season and led the Monarchs to the Division III-AA title.
Both teams can now concentrate on other big fish, too: Redondo plays host to Poly on Saturday, and tonight/Friday Mira Costa plays No. 17 Mater Dei in the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei.
-- Martin Henderson