GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Disciplined Buena Defense Stifles Diamond Bar, 60-42

The Diamond Bar High girls’ basketball team’s offensive strategy is pretty much hit and miss.

However, the Brahmas’ offense, which is centered around the outside shot, missed more often in a 60-42 loss to Buena in a second-round Southern Section I-A Division game Wednesday night at Diamond Bar High.

A suffocating, disciplined Buena defense enabled Diamond Bar to convert only three of 28 field-goal attempts in the first half--all three-point baskets--as Buena built an 28-15 halftime lead and never trailed.

“We were very intense from the beginning,” said Buena senior guard Mia Palkie who finished with a team-high 12 points. “We knew they had girls who shoot the three-point shot and we wanted to shut it down.

Lianne Ishikawa added 10 points and five assists for Buena (23-2), which won its 10th game in a row.

Diamond Bar’s Krista Ullmann, the Southern Section three-point shot leader during the regular season with 92, made only one of 15 shots and finished with three points.

Palkie, who also had eight rebounds and five assists, scored the Bulldogs’ first four points to help establish an 11-1 advantage midway through the opening period.

Michelle Giordano gave Buena a 15-3 lead with three and a half minutes left in the first period.

Diamond Bar (18-10) scored eight unanswered points to close within five points, 28-23, on a jump shot by Shannon Ramsey with 5:37 left in the third period.

However, Buena put the game out of reach with a 13-2 run to go ahead, 41-25. Senior reserve guard Erica Probasco scored all nine of her points in the third quarter, including seven points during the decisive spurt.

“We played in spurts and had little lulls,” Buena Coach Joe Vaughan. “We played good midway through the second quarter, but were horrible in the third.”