Bishop Montgomery Girls Beat Second-Seeded Gahr

The desire to play another basketball game translated into victory for the Bishop Montgomery High girls’ team Thursday night.

The seventh-seeded Knights upset second-seeded Gahr, 60-52, and will play Alemany, a 68-42 winner over Carlsbad, for the Southern California Regional Division II title at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Three players scored in double figures and the Knights outrebounded Gahr, 36-24. But Bishop Montgomery was driven by a simple desire.

“We just didn’t want this to be our last game,” Coach Cedric Hurt said. “We were focused the whole game.”

The smaller Knights used a full-court press and a zone defense to stifle Allison Arrendondo, Gahr’s high-scoring center. The 6-foot-3 senior scored 12 points, but she was largely ineffective, especially in the third quarter when Bishop Montgomery built a 14-point lead.

The Knights were also quicker on offense, scoring on several fast-break opportunities and setting up forward Nicole Haynes for a game-high 16 points. Haynes also had 11 rebounds and made six steals.

Knight guard Shauna Saiz scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds, and Natalie Graham had 11 points and six rebounds.

Gahr led, 11-8, but the Knights rallied to take a 16-13 first-quarter lead. Bishop Montgomery led by as many as nine in the second quarter and took a 30-24 halftime lead.

After Gahr rallied to within 33-30 early in the third quarter, Haynes ignited a 14-3 run that gave Bishop Montgomery a 47-33 advantage after three quarters.

Gahr used a technical foul on Hurt and Shannon Gale’s three-point play to pull within 10 points with 6 minutes 12 seconds remaining. It also cut the lead to 58-50 with 56 seconds left, but the Knights withstood the charge despite missing the front end of three free-throw situations.

“We kept up our intensity, we stayed focused and we moved our feet and played good hard defense,” Hurt said.