Girls’ Basketball: Tough breaks for Thousand Oaks

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Thousand Oaks High was projected to have a very strong girls’ basketball program this season -- until the team’s top senior tore her anterior cruciate ligament and the squad’s best junior decided to quit.

Senior guard Jenna Bandy tore her ACL at the end of summer while playing in a pickup basketball game with her friends at Pepperdine University. She will most likely miss the entire season.

And one of the nation’s most heavily recruited juniors, 5-foot-11 forward Karina Alofaituli, decided not to play high school basketball early this fall.

‘I can’t speculate why she didn’t want to play,’ Coach Rick Cromwell said. ‘It’ll make it a lot easier for the other teams in the Marmonte League.’

The coach said she’s going to focus on club basketball and she’s training with former Canyon girls’ basketball coach Stan Delus three times a week.

--Melissa Rohlin