Glendale High girls’ basketball can’t buy a shot against Canyon

BURBANK — Kristina Sahakian easily made a pair of layups, Claire Yanai banked in a hook shot and Ivet Satorian hit a running shot.

That was all of the baskets the Glendale High girls’ basketball team made in Tuesday’s pool-play game of the Magnolia Park Optimist Tournament at Burroughs High.

The Nitros’ first basket, Yanai’s off-balanced shot in the first quarter, came after their opponent, Canyon Country Canyon, had already scored 16 points.

Glendale made four of 43 shots, as it struggled on offense and couldn’t contain Canyon in a 56-17 loss.

“It was literally no effort,” said Glendale Coach Tania Adary, whose team will continue play in the tournament with a 3 p.m. contest Wednesday against Notre Dame. “I gotta give credit to Canyon. They played well. Defensively, they were all over the place. Offensively, they were all over the place.”

Adary’s team had issues on defense and offense from the outset.

Canyon (3-0) pressured Glendale with a press that forced the Nitros into 12 first-quarter turnovers, as it built a 16-2 lead after the first quarter and a 34-6 advantage at the end of the half.

“We stayed active on defense the whole time,” Canyon Coach Chuck Johns said. “We have nice athleticism. The kids committed themselves to being aggressive and playing good defense.”

Canyon’s aggressiveness caused Glendale to miss 20 consecutive shots from the end of the first quarter to the beginning of the third quarter, when Sahakian made her first bucket.

“We got open looks,” said Adary, whose team missed all 14 of its shots in the second quarter. “We couldn’t buy a basket.”

Glendale’s troubles continued in the third quarter.

Canyon’s on-ball pressure continued to frustrated the Nitros, who had five more turnovers in the period en route to finishing with 24 turnovers.

A minute into the fourth quarter, the Cowboys had a 40-point lead, resulting in a running clock for the final seven minutes.

Canyon was 24 of 50 (48%) from the field and five of 15 from three-point territory.

Glendale missed its eight three-point attempts.

More than half of Glendale’s points came from the free-throw line, as it finished nine of 16.

Sahakian led Glendale with seven points and Satorian had five points.

Monica Friedl and Dana Bowers each had 11 points for Canyon, which also received nine points apiece from Alexa Porchia and Regan Chambers.

While Canyon looked like an experienced squad, the Nitros showed their inexperience in the young season in which Adary is attempting to rebuild her squad after it lost seven of last year’s top players to graduation.

Adary said she hopes her team learns from Tuesday’s setback.

“I’m glad it is happening now,” said Adary, whose team took fourth in the Pacific League before falling in the first round of the playoffs last season. “We could make adjustments we need to make.”