INSIDE INFO
Guards, Pioneers already looking to next year
The outcome of Saturday’s annual cross-town clash between the
Bellarmine-Jefferson and Providence girls’ basketball teams was less
than 15 minutes old, and already Pioneer Coach Andrew Bencze was
looking to next year’s intracity showdown at Providence gym.
“It’s nice that we’ve created a rivalry where the kids can be in a
game [with this kind of atmosphere],” said Bencze, whose squad lost
to Bell-Jeff for the second straight season with its 50-35 setback.
“But it’s frustrating, because now we have to sit and wait another
year for our shot.”
After his squad played three consecutive days en route to winning
the St. Genevieve Tournament in Panorama City, Bell-Jeff Coach Bryan
Camacho feared that his team might be competing on tired legs.
But the Guards fed off their home crowd at the Keating Memorial
Gymnasium to overcome a slow start and knock off a young Pioneer
squad.
“What you saw out there was two teams just playing hard,” Camacho
said.
“[Providence] just wouldn’t go away, and they kept pushing us, but
we changed it up a little bit in the second half, and it worked to
our advantage.”
For Bencze, he hopes playing in games the caliber of Saturday’s
will help his team prepare for the CIF Southern Section Division IVA
playoffs in February.
“It’ll definitely help us out in the long run because it was a
game that had a playoff-type intensity,” Bencze said.
“Hopefully it will inspire our kids to look a little harder [at
how we compete]. [Saturday] we didn’t measure up, and now we have to
move on.”
Hoop shoot set for McCambridge Park
Boys and girls 8 to 13 will get a chance to show their basketball
skills at an event on Saturday at McCambridge Park Recreation Center
gym.
The annual Hoop Shoot free-throw-shooting competition, sponsored
by Burbank Elks Lodge 1497, will take place from noon to 4:30 p.m.
Divisional winners will get a chance to compete in regional
competition in January. Regional winners will earn a spot in the
national competition.