Indians impose their will, 52-35
BURROUGHS HIGH — The Burroughs High girls’ basketball team had plenty of reason to be confident heading into Thursday night’s first-round CIF Southern Section Division II-AA playoff game against visiting Mission Viejo.
The Pacific-League-champion Indians rolled into the contest winners of 11 straight games and had already set the all-time program mark for victories in a single season.
But still, it’s playoff time, which means every tournament team has earned the right to compete on this stage.
Regardless, against Mission Viejo, Burroughs imposed their will from the outset and was dominant to the finish.
Burroughs, the No. 4 seed, scored first, never trailed and won the blowout, 52-35.
With the win, the Indians advanced to play Saugus (14-14) at 7 p.m. today at Burroughs. The Centurions won their postseason opener Thursday, defeating Marina, 45-33.
“I wasn’t expecting us to have that big of an offensive outburst,” Burroughs Coach Vicky Oganyan said of the 17-point first-round drubbing. “But we did.”
Senior guard Lisha Elsenbach scored a game-high 21 points for the Indians (24-5). She hit three three-pointers and added eight rebounds, six steals and two assists.
“I expected a closer game,” Elsenbach said, “but we just took them. The threes were just falling in. I think as a team we did pretty good on offense, not just myself.”
Both teams got out to slow starts, as Burroughs led, 8-2, after the first quarter.
Elsenbach scored the first six points of the game.
“She had an awesome game,” Oganyan said. “She stepped up.”
Mission Viejo got off just four shots in the opening six minutes and didn’t score until 1:30 remained in the first quarter.
After that, it wasn’t close.
During a second-quarter rally, senior guard Chelsea Rhamdeow made two three-pointers, Elsenbach hit a three, then later got a steal and assisted Rhamdeow, who made a transition lay-up, putting the Indians up, 26-6.
The Indians led, 29-11, by halftime.
Burroughs took a commanding 46-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter and cruised from there.
“We knew they were going to play the two-three zone [defense],” Oganyan said. “A lot of games in the league we saw zone, so we got better at [scoring against] it.”
Rhamdeow, a 5-foot-4 guard, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
The Indians outrebounded the Diablos, 33-18.
“We talked about how rebounding is the key for us,” Oganyan said. “That’s been our whole thing the whole year.”
Burroughs had 16 steals and Mission Viejo (12-15) had trouble setting up its offense against the Indians’ trapping zone defense.
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