Burbank subs help out in win

BURBANK HIGH — As badly as the Glendale High girls’ basketball team was getting outplayed Wednesday afternoon, it was still within one basket of tying up the score early in the third quarter.

As it turned out, however, the second half — with the exception of the first couple minutes — was a nightmare for the Nitros.

And though it looked like the tide was turning, Serah Mirzaeian’s three-pointer early in the third quarter that brought the deficit down to three was the final field goal of the game for Glendale.

The drought allowed host Burbank to end the quarter on an 11-1 run en route to a 48-24 Pacific League victory.

“We picked up the intensity on defense, and then it was just stopped,” said Glendale Coach Tania Adary, whose squad has lost four of its last five games.

Adary sensed trouble and called a timeout after Leah Andriasian and Irene Pashapour scored a quick five points on back-to-back possessions to increase the Bulldogs’ lead to 34-23.

Andriasian hit a three with the shot clock going down that seemed to affect  Glendale (11-10, 3-6 in league) mentally the rest of the way.

Ultimately, Burbank (12-9, 5-4) scored 19 straight points through the final two quarters before Glendale’s Stella Ghazarian stopped the bleeding with a free throw late in the fourth period. At that point, it was long out of reach.

“We wanted to come out strong in the third, but a couple girls picked up their third fouls,” Burbank Coach Bruce Breeden said. “Luckily for us, the subs came in and gave us energy.”

The Bulldogs had more energy and outworked Glendale all game. They took advantage of their size to the tune of 13 second-chance points.

“Same story,” said Adary who saw her players give up 15 second-chance points Monday against Pasadena.

The Nitros gave up the first 10 points of the game, but outscored the Bulldogs in the second quarter. Mirzaeian scored the first five points of the second period on a layup followed by a three-pointer.

After cutting the lead to three in the third quarter, Glendale missed the next 20 field goals and turned it over eight times, essentially giving up the game to Burbank, which had a sub par shooting night itself, but turned up the defense.

“We knew defense was going to win the game,” said Breeden whose team snapped a three-game losing streak. “It was a good team effort, all 10 girls played and contributed.”

Mirzaeian led the Nitros with a team-high 12 points with Ghazarian following up with seven

Damarie Gonzalez had a game-high 13 points. Courtney Seidler was close behind with 12.

The Nitros haven’t held a lead in the last eight quarters and will look to turn the season around starting Friday against Crescenta Valley.

“Can’t be happy,” Adary said of the team’s mood. “They’re real down, but we got games left.”