Defense keys win for La Cañada girls’ basketball over Flintridge Prep
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LA CAÑADA — Over the last two seasons, the Flintridge Prep and La Cañada High girls’ basketball teams have certainly enjoyed success.
The programs have each won two league titles with a combined 43-1 record within their respective leagues, while both have advanced to CIF Southern Section championship games and have a combined 13-5 postseason mark.
This season, however, after the graduation of All-Area Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year Zoe Williams of La Cañada and All-Area players Taylor Yoshida and Renae Tamura of Flintridge Prep, both squads entered Wednesday afternoon’s opener of the La Cañada New Year’s Ball Tournament with new identities.
The guard-driven Spartans appeared further ahead of the curve than the young Rebels as La Cañada rolled to a 62-35 victory in a battle for city supremacy.
“Defensively, the girls really stepped up because Prep has some really good players,” La Cañada coach Sarah Beattie said. “[Kaitlyn Chen] and [Sofia Gonzalez] are amazing players and we knew that going in. I was really happy with Emmie [Lew] and how the other girls keyed in on [Chen] and limited her. Collectively, I just liked the hard work of our defense.”
La Cañada (8-2) held Flintridge Prep (6-5) to 12 of 55 shooting (22%), while Gonzalez finished with 14 points and five rebounds and Chen tallied 10 points and three steals.
“For us this season, it’s been more team play than in the past,” said La Cañada senior guard Tess Oakley-Stilson, who led her squad with 11 points and nine rebounds. “There’s no one player we can rely on. We all have to step up and play.”
Oakley-Stilson was one of six Spartans to score seven or more points, which included 10 points and seven rebounds from Lauren Scoville and eight points each from Lew, Sevana Wenn and Brooke Yasuda (seven rebounds).
The Spartans easily won the rebound battle, 42-28, while La Cañada shot 35% (26 of 75) from the field.
“The battle of La Cañada would have been a lot more fun a couple of years ago, but right now all we’re focused on is being more consistent,” Flintridge Prep co-coach Jayme Kiyomura Chan said. “We’re so young and we’ll go out and show moments of brilliance and then we’ll come out and lay an egg and play like this. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just part of our process.”
Between the first and second quarters, the Rebels went 4 minutes, 02 seconds between points and Flintridge Prep also did not score over the final 3:34 of the first half.
It was in one of those droughts that La Cañada iced the contest.
The Rebels trailed, 18-9, at the six-minute mark in the second quarter when the squad responded with a 5-0 spurt fueled by four points from junior center Madison Manning (nine points and five rebounds) to climb within 18-14 with 4:08 left in the first half.
Just at the Rebels gained traction and confidence, La Cañada pushed back.
The Spartans forced three turnovers and outscored the Rebels, 13-1, to take a commanding 31-15 advantage into the break.
Up by 16, the Spartans never relented in winning the third quarter, 18-13, and the fourth, 13-7.
La Cañada continues tournament play Thursday at 2:30 p.m. versus Hart, while Flintridge Prep takes on Arleta at 7 p.m.
