Flintridge Sacred Heart basketball closes out summer with victory
LA CAÑADA — With the summer season now officially closed, there will be some time for Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy basketball Coach Ty Buxman to make some player evaluations.
The Tologs wrapped up Thursday with a 27-22 win against Mayfield in a Flintridge Prep Summer League contest.
“We’ve had a pretty good last couple of months,” said Buxman, who lost nine players from last season’s squad that advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA quarterfinals. “It’s good because we did what we wanted to this summer.
“Now, we’ll take a look at things and see what the possibilities are. A lot of the players got some good minutes, so we could see their strengths and what they need to still try to keep getting better at.”
Flintridge Sacred Heart, which will return just two players next season, received 10 points from Hope Sadahiro and nine from Janna De Vera on Thursday.
Sadahiro, a junior point guard, said she wanted to take advantage of her final opportunity competing in the summer.
“I really wanted to take the time to get better right up through today,” said Sadahiro, who made a three-pointer to give the Tologs a 22-19 lead with 8:20 left in the game. “We tried hard to learn about each other and we could start to see the team jell, plus we could see the pluses and minuses and have the time to work things out.
“We found out a lot about ourselves and that’s a good things moving forward. We have a much better idea what each player can do.”
Sadahiro sealed the game with a layup to make it 26-19 with 1:49 to go.
Sadahiro made a three-pointer from the right side to give Flintridge Sacred Heart, which finished second in the Sunshine League last season behind Marymount, a 13-4 advantage with 13:17 remaining in the first half. Earlier in the half, Flintridge Sacred Heart got two three-pointers from De Vara. De Vara’s second three-pointer from the left side gave the Tologs an 8-2 lead with 15:03 left.
Mayfield, which took second in the Prep League last season behind Flintridge Prep, held a 16-14 halftime lead.
Buxman, who took over the head coaching responsibilities in 2012 after previously serving as an assistant for four seasons, said the Tologs made strides.
“They have a much better idea of what the defensive schemes will probably be and the offense we’d like to run,” Buxman said. “They have a better understanding on how to set picks, drive and push the tempo.”
