Derby Has Huskies on the Move

Trailing by five points, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter, it appeared the North Hollywood High girls’ basketball team was on its way to a fourth consecutive quarterfinal loss in the City Section 4-A Division playoffs.

But the Huskies reeled off 11 straight points and never looked back for a 69-57 victory over Garfield on Wednesday night at North Hollywood High.

Garfield ends the season 19-8.

“Even when we fell behind, the look in our players’ eyes said, ‘We’re not going to end here,’ ” North Hollywood Coach Rich Allen said. “And I knew we had one good spurt left in us.”

Markia Derby scored 22 points for the third-seeded Huskies (25-2), including a layup off a no-look pass from teammate Tashean Thomas that gave North Hollywood a 61-53 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

“We fell apart in the third quarter,” said Derby, a 5-foot-7 junior guard. “We were committing dumb fouls, rushing our shots and playing bad defense. But we just didn’t give up.”

Lindsay Sotero-Higa and Claudia Villa each added 14 points for the Huskies.