Nitros go flat early in loss

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — It’s been an up-and-down Pacific League season for the Glendale High girls’ basketball team, which came into Friday’s game against Burroughs having alternated wins and losses over its first four league games.

That trend continued, as the Nitros, coming off their biggest win of the season in Wednesday’s upset of defending league champion Muir, played one of their flattest games of the season in a 39-29 home loss to the Indians.

“As I’ve said from Day One, it’s just our consistency,” Glendale Coach Tania Adary said. “We’ve had none and I just don’t know how else to try and gain that consistency. It might be from their shooting, it might be from their defense.”

Both were sore spots for the Nitros in the first quarter on Friday, as Burroughs opened up an 18-3 lead over the first seven minutes of play, watching Glendale shoot itself out of the game while making its own drives to the basket undeterred.

Glendale (10-7, 2-3 in league) would briefly get within eight points with 2:49 left in a fourth quarter in which neither team could buy a basket. Burroughs (14-4, 4-1) struggled particularly in the final period, going the first 7:10 without a field goal, but it mattered not, as the Nitros converted on just three of their own attempts.

“We couldn’t buy a shot, we couldn’t buy a free throw,” Adary said. “There was a point where we should have gained that momentum and totally run with that, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Stella Ghazarian, who led Glendale with 11 points, drove and converted a three-point play just before the end of the first quarter to cut the lead to 12.

Burroughs, which was led by 15 points from Lisha Elsenbach and 12 from Chelsea Rhamdeow, couldn’t run away with the game in the second quarter, as its first field goal didn’t come until three and a half minutes into the second period.

But Glendale didn’t get its first basket until the 2:39 mark on a Ghazarian layup, which cut the Indians’ lead to 22-9. By stringing together a few more free throws before the end of the quarter, Glendale got to within 11 at the half.

In the third quarter, Glendale was presented with some easy chances to get back into the game when a blowup on the Burroughs sideline over a disputed foul call resulted in three technical fouls in succession and six chances at the free-throw line.

But only two of them were cashed in and going forward Glendale seemed more shaken up by the disturbance than Burroughs. The Nitros turned the ball over on their next two possessions and saw Burroughs end the quarter on a 6-2 run to lead, 32-19, going into the fourth.