Providence girls’ basketball finishes runner-up in own tourney
BURBANK — Just two years ago, Providence girls’ basketball coach Andrew Bencze and his counterpart at La Salle, Scott Wiard, shared the same sideline during the Pioneers basketball games when Wiard served as an assistant coach to Bencze for one season.
On Saturday night at the Providence Pioneer Shootout championship game at Providence High, the two sat courtside once again, except with a scorers table dividing their teams.
Though Providence took an early lead, the Pioneers endured a lengthy scoring drought that gave the Lancers a lead it would not relinquish. Providence made a run late in the game, but La Salle won the tournament championship game, 35-26.
“To go 3-1 out of 16 teams and you finish second is a pretty good confidence-builder for us,” Bencze said. “You know, you competed. It’s not like we went into the final and got blown out by La Salle. It was a close game all the way through.
“We had to foul in the end and that made the score a little bigger, but we showed that we have the ability to play with very good basketball teams.”
Providence (5-3) posted wins against Buckley, Dorsey and Hertiage Christian to earn a spot in the final of its own tournament.
Pioneers senior Sydney Sayoc led Providence with 14 points and seven rebounds, while sophomore sibling Audrey Sayoc tallied five points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Both players were named to the all-tournament team, with La Salle guard Ellie Chen earning tournament most valuable player honors. The Lancers freshman scored nine points and grabbed three steals in the tournament finale.
“It’s not fun coaching against friends,” Wiard said. “I didn’t sleep really well last night. Coach Bencze is one of my good friends, but obviously, winning a championship is always fun.”
Sydney Sayoc scored the first five points for the Pioneers, which included a three-pointer assisted by Audrey Sayoc, for a 5-1 lead at 4:58 in the opening quarter.
However, a layup at 4:25 from Pioneers sophomore Ava Gibbs would be the last basket from Providence in the first half, as the Pioneers took a 7-1 lead.
The Lancers (7-0) scored their first basket from the field at 2:57 in the first quarter with a lay-in from Chen, who would score again before a three-pointer from Crystal Ramirez ended the quarter with a 8-7 lead for La Salle.
“Not throwing the ball away and being able to get back and get set on defense [helped us]” said Wiard of the Lancers’ early struggles. “I would talk before the game about trying to make it a half-court game and they finally settled down a little bit and stopped letting them get transition baskets. We were able to guard them a little better.”
Providence struggled to score in the second quarter and attempted just two shots in the first four minutes of the stanza.
Though the Lancers scored twice to extend the lead to 12-7 at the 5:31 mark, the Pioneers’ defense held the visitors scoreless until a basket from Zarah Huo with 1:35 left in the half.
A free throw from Elyse Knipschild (seven points, eight rebounds) closed out a 14-0 run in the first half for the Lancers for a 15-7 lead at halftime.
“La Salle is a high-scoring team if you let them be,” Bencze said. “They’re a great three-point shooting team, so when you check those things off the list, defensively, we did a great job.
“They didn’t shoot a great percentage from three. We tried not to give them open looks and make them challenge the looks, and that’s what I told them. When we have trouble scoring, our defense is going to keep us in games and it did that.”
The Pioneers finally ended their scoring drought at 5:58 in the third quarter with a corner three-pointer from Sydney Sayoc to cut the La Salle lead to 19-10.
“We were playing faster than we should have and we weren’t running our plays exactly the correct way,” Sayoc said. “I think, in the second half, when we had that run, it was because we were being more aggressive on our defense and pushed the ball as fast as we could have like in the first half.”
Sayoc drove in another layup to make it a 23-15 deficit, but the Lancers ended the quarter on a 6-0 run for a 29-15 lead going into the fourth.
With 3:22 left, the Sayoc sisters combined for six points on a 7-0 Providence run to slice the La Salle lead to 30-24, spearheaded by Audrey Sayoc’s back-to-back steals for consecutive baskets.