Chaminade Put in Its Place

Similar records, vastly different schedules, same result.

Harvard-Westlake High continued its girls’ basketball dominance over Chaminade on Thursday night, taking a 57-36 victory in a Mission League opener at Harvard-Westlake.

Chaminade, one of the region’s most promising young teams, won 11 of its first 12 games and figured to be the top challenger to the Wolverines (13-3) in the league.

But hopes of an upset were dashed by a hail of Wolverine baskets in the first quarter.

Three minutes into the game, every Wolverine starter had scored.

By the end of the quarter, it was 24-10.

At halftime, it was 42-12.

“Early on, we got our hearts ripped out,” Coach Kelly DiMuro said.

The lead would grow to 32 points in the third quarter, when Coach Melissa Hearlihy of Harvard-Westlake emptied her bench.

“They’re young and we have a very experienced team,” Hearlihy said.

Karina Siam scored 14 points and Chantal Kazay added 10 points and 16 rebounds for Harvard-Westlake, the region’s No. 3-ranked team by The Times.

Harvard-Westlake has four seniors in its lineup.

Chaminade, which has no seniors on its 10-player roster, is off to its best start since the 1980s.

But while Chaminade was winning the Fillmore and Campbell Hall tournaments and taking the consolation title at the Righetti tournament, Harvard-Westlake played eight teams which played for 14 section titles in the last four seasons.

“We haven’t played really tough teams,” said Chaminade guard Christina Zdenek, who scored 20 points. “We had been blowing everybody out. This was a wake-up call for us.”

The Eagles did some cosmetic work on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Wolverines, 18-7.

Zdenek, a sophomore guard and the Eagles’ leading scorer, had only four points at halftime and nine after three quarters. Cynthia Lai added seven points for Chaminade.

Harvard-Westlake, which made 23 of its first 37 shots and forced 18 turnovers, left impressed by the improvement made by Chaminade, which was 11-12 last season.

“They’re an up-and-coming team,” Siam said.