Buena Raises the Roof

Buena High’s 70-game Channel League winning streak wasn’t on the line in it’s annual fund-raiser game Saturday night, although you wouldn’t have known it from the way the Bulldogs played.

Utilizing every weapon in its arsenal, Buena routed Muir, 66-38, in a nonleague showdown between ranked girls’ basketball teams.

Center Kelly Greathouse had 20 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots for the Bulldogs (18-4).

Guard Courtney Young added 18 points and seven assists, and forward Courtney LaVere added 10 points for Buena, ranked No. 25 in the nation, No. 6 in the State Division I poll, second in the Southern Section Division I-A poll and first in the region by The Times.

Forward Cassandra Wiggins scored 15 points for the Mustangs (15-6), ranked No. 2 in the Southern Section Division II-A poll.

Muir had won nine consecutive games, including a 60-55 victory at Pacific League rival Crescenta Valley the previous night.

“We came here to play and try to win,” Coach Beverly Ball of Muir said. “Any time we get an opportunity to play a ranked team, that’s good. Our goal was to contain them and make their players do things that they don’t normally do.”

Muir center Tyesha Fluker, a 6-foot-3 sophomore averaging 22 points and 17 rebounds, was neutralized by Greathouse and LaVere. Fluker finished with six points and 12 rebounds.

Muir kept pace with the Bulldogs for the first four minutes, tying the game, 6-6, on a dribble-drive and layup by Wiggins.

After that, Buena began to assert itself underneath.

Greathouse capped an 8-0 run with a jump shot from just inside the three-point line that gave a Buena 14-6 lead, then ended the quarter with an offensive rebounds and subsequent bank shot to increase the Bulldogs’ lead to 21-8.

Fluker took a hard fall after being fouled by forward Kellie Erickson with 1:54 left in the first quarter. Fluker went to the bench and applied ice to a sore knee before returning at the start of the second quarter.

“We took this game pretty seriously,” Greathouse said. “We didn’t know much about them, but we knew that they were a good team.

“We finally started taking over toward the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter by using a zone defense.”

Buena ended the competitive phase of the game with a 17-2 run at the start of the second half that gave the Bulldogs a 48-18 lead with 1:32 left in the third quarter.

Liz Matthews ended the onslaught with a three-pointer, after which Coach Joe Vaughan pulled Greathouse and Young.

Buena outscored the Mustangs, 21-5, in the quarter and held Muir scoreless for 6:37.