Spartans roll against Duarte

The La Cañada girls’ basketball team can add an impressive win to their summer resume as the Spartans demolished Duarte in a game that ended with an 18-point lead, 38-20, Tuesday evening.

The game wasn’t the work of just one player, coach Tamar Hill said, but of the entire team, all of which played well.

“It’s very even scoring,” Hill explained. “It’s not like one person is carrying us. We have points here, points there. We’ve got a nice even distribution or people contributing.”

In the first half, the Spartans had a 14-5 lead.

They maintained the lead throughout the second half by aggressively fighting for rebounds to counter Duarte’s increased defense and solidified this lead with a number of three-pointers.

The Spartans played well as a team. With only a couple minutes left, assist from Zoe Kumagai, resulting in a perfectly arched three-pointer by Grace O’Hara. On the ensuing play, Kim Tsou stole the ball, resulting in a layup by Katherine Christianson, assisted by Kumagai.

A minute later, after Duarte failed to score, they ran the clock down.

One very welcome addition was Kate Hansen, the junior world luge champion, who recently returned from luge training in Lake Placid and played in the game, adding five points to the cause.

“It was fun to see the girl’s reaction [to her performance],” Hill said. “Obviously having her back gave the girls a boost. I thought she’d be a little rustier, but she did fine.”

Christianson also played well with eight points.

In spite of Tuesday’s incredible performance, Hill is not going to relax efforts for the upcoming season.

“We’re relatively young,” Hill said, “with a lot of juniors and a lot of sophomores, so that’s why we’re playing close to forty games this season.”