Burroughs girls’ basketball falls to Granada Hills in own tournament
BURBANK — The Burroughs High girls’ basketball team had little time to catch its breath heading into its matchup against Granada Hills Charter in the final game of the Burroughs Basketball Tournament on Saturday.
The Indians came off of a tough Pacific League win on Friday against Crescenta Valley. Despite the short rest, the Indians kept up with the Highlanders in the opening minutes of the first quarter.
However, Granada Hills intensified its pressure in the second frame to pull ahead of Burroughs and win, 48-37.
“We talked about how they were going to press us and one of the key things was to take care of the ball,” Burroughs coach Vicky Oganyan said. “In the first quarter, we didn’t do a good job. Probably the whole first half, but when we did do a few good plays, it took the pressure off.
“We just gave up too many possessions by turning the ball over and they can just really shoot. They have a lot of shooters. It’s hard to guard them.”
With league play already underway, the Indians (5-4) competed in just one game in their home tournament, which was won by Chaminade in a 50-49 victory over Serra on Saturday.
Burroughs junior Faith Boulanger led the Indians in scoring with nine points and grabbed seven rebounds. Indians junior Dyani Del Castillo added eight points and recorded six rebounds and Burroughs sophomore Noor Fahs contributed seven points and five rebounds.
Granada Hills junior Taylor Yoshino scored a game-high 14 points with four three-pointers. Highlanders senior Megan Delgado and senior Crystal Garay each added nine points each and senior Samiyah Muhammad blocked three shots and brought down eight rebounds, six of which were off the offensive glass with three in the fourth.
The teams were knotted at 8 early in the first quarter until a pair of baskets from Haylee Aiden gave the Highlanders a four-point cushion at 4:48 in the period.
Fahs, who scored five points in the opening quarter, attacked the basket for a three-point play to bring Burroughs to within 12-11 with 1:59 left in the frame.
“I realized in the past few games I started to really get aggressive in the last few quarters,” Fahs said. “I said this time, I just have to start strong and that will help set up the team for the rest of the game.”
With eight seconds left in the first quarter, Granada Hills (9-3) started a 7-0 run that lasted until 4:41 in the second quarter for a 19-11 lead before a Boulanger mid-range shot ended the Indians’ scoring drought.
Down, 26-15, after a Yoshino three-pointer, Boulanger connected with Indians center Sydney Martin twice to cut the Highlanders lead to seven. A three from Leena Vo made it a 29-19 halftime advantage for Granada Hills.
The Highlanders built on their score in the third quarter and extended the advantage to 39-26 on a three-pointer from Garay with 2:00 left.
Boulanger answered with a three-point make as the Indians scored six unanswered points to end the quarter trailing Granada Hills, 39-29.
“I think the reason we were kind of dead at the beginning was because we just had a game [Friday],” Boulanger said. “All of us put all of our energy and physicality into that. I think at halftime, we just started to realize this is what we needed to do and we need to be able to match their physicality to be able to at least catch up a tiny bit.”
Del Castillo opened the fourth with a three-pointer as the teams traded long-range shots for the remainder of the game.
Yoshino scored a pair of threes and Boulanger drained one in between. But a Vo three-pointer made it a 48-35 Highlanders lead with 3:41 left before the Indians finished off the game at the free-throw line.
“I thought some of our players were a little fatigued, but I thought we were still trying,” Oganyan said. “It might have been a little fatigue, but we just have to play through that. We have to learn to fight through that.”