Burroughs girls’ basketball loses first-place battle with Pasadena
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PASADENA — Sole possession of first place in the Pacific League was at stake Friday, when the Burroughs High girls’ basketball team took on host Pasadena in a battle of the league’s top squads.
The Indians struggled to knock down shots in the opening quarter, while the Bulldogs defense forced five turnovers to establish a 10-point lead at the end of the quarter.
Burroughs came as close as four points in the fourth quarter, but Pasadena held on to claim a 49-40 victory to move into first place all alone.
“We have to do a better job in adjusting and we didn’t exactly do that, defensively,” Burroughs coach Vicky Oganyan said. “We played hard the whole game, I thought. We just came up short.”
Indians sophomore Noor Fahs finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while junior Faith Boulanger had 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Burroughs junior Kayla Wrobel added nine points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Pasadena junior Sydney Brumfield led the Bulldogs with 19 points and had five steals and Bulldogs junior Kameria Piggee scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds, seven on the offensive end.
With two games remaining in the regular season, the Indians (19-6, 10-2 in league) trail the Bulldogs (15-6, 11-1) by one game.
Burroughs struggled from the field in the opening quarter and closed the quarter shooting three of 14. In contrast, the Bulldogs finished with seven-of-12 shooting and forced five turnovers with four steals from Brumfield.
“That’s definitely our game,” Pasadena coach Melissa Sanchez said. “We’re a little more aggressive on defense, so the game plan was to play like us and to play our game to execute our offense. They’re a really tough team, so we just tried to match their intensity as well.”
The Bulldogs put together seven unanswered points, capped by a three-pointer from Brumfield, to take a 16-6 lead with 1:02 left in the first quarter. A trip to the free-throw line from Fahs cut the Burroughs deficit to 18-8 at the end of the quarter.
The Indians did much of their scoring of the second quarter at the free-throw line, hitting eight of 10 shots with five coming from Fahs.
“We knew that they were doing that on purpose,” said Fahs, a sophomore, who cut the Pasadena lead to 20-15 with a pair of free throws at 3:47 of the second quarter. “They’re trying to pressure us because they know we struggle with pressure. We just had to set the pace of the game and to control it.
“We told ourselves ‘We’re the ones in control and they can’t make us speed up or slow down.’ When we got the ball, we just had to slow down, think about our next pass and not just rush things just because of the pressure.”
The Bulldogs scored all three field goals of the second quarter and started with a basket from sophomore Olivia Hodges at 2:38 to put Pasadena up, 22-15.
The Bulldogs finished the half with a three-pointer from Brumfield with 29.4 left. At the buzzer, Brumfield was fouled beyond the arc and made all free throws to give Pasadena a 28-16 halftime lead.
A three-point play from Fahs put Burroughs within 33-25 with 2:40 left in the third before Brumfield scored three points to put Pasadena ahead by 11.
Behind Boulanger’s four points to start the fourth, the Indians jumped out to a 9-2 run to make it a 38-34 margin with 4:26 left. However, a three-pointer from Brumfield put Pasadena up, 43-34, with 3:44 left.
Boulanger found Wrobel twice for two easy baskets to make it 45-39 with 2:08 to go. The junior, who struggled with foul trouble and had her fourth infraction in the third quarter, scored five points and had three assists in the fourth quarter.