Redondo girls reach Southern California title game to keep hoop dreams alive
Redondo’s Tori Lee drives to the basket in Redondo’s third win against rival Mira Costa this season. Photo
When a title is on the line, Redondo’s girls basketball team has responded this season. Mira Costa has been their victim.
After dropping its only Bay League game at Mira Costa, the Sea Hawks defeated the Mustangs for the third straight time Tuesday to advance to the CIF State Southern California Divison 2 Regional Championship where second-seeded Redondo (27-7) will face top-seeded Mark Keppel (25-7) on Saturday in a 10 a.m. game at The Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State.
After claiming the Bay League crown with a one-point win against Mira Costa and the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA title by a 23-poiint margin against its rival, the Sea Hawks continued their quest for a state championship with a convincing 46-31 victory over the third-seeded Mustangs in the CIF Southern California Regional semifinals.
“It’s incredibly difficult, almost impossible to beat a team like Costa three times in a row and I just credit the girls,” Redondo head coach Marcelo Enriquez said. “They’re on a mission right now and playing such great team basketball. Everyone is contributing to the scoring and the defense and that’s making us so difficult to beat.”
With the two teams knowing each other so well, Enriquez said his team had no different strategy than in the previous meetings.
“We had the blueprint and focused a little more on detail,” Enriquez said. “We thought we could play better than the CIF championship game. We hit some timely threes again and it’s just not one kid carrying us but a true team effort.”
After a low scoring first quarter where Redondo held an 8-4 lead, a defensive struggle created numerous turnovers by both sides yet the Sea Hawks increased their lead to 18-9 at the half.
Redondo’s Nao Shiota fouls Mira Costa’s Allie Navarette who scored a game-high 15 points. Photo
“We really wanted to stay locked in our defense because that was our main focus,” guard Mica Enriquez said. ”At the beginning when our buckets weren’t falling, our coach said not to worry and to stay focused on our defense because that’s what we’re known for.”
Nao Shiota opened the second half nailing her third 3-pointer of the game and the shots began to fall for Redondo, which made four trifectas in the second half. Shiota finished with a team-high 13 points.
Mira Costa closed the gap when Allie Navarette’s 3-pointer with just under three minutes left in the third quarter made the score 26-19, but that was a s close as the Mustangs would get.
Navarette scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed five rebounds while fellow sophomores Alexa Underwood added four points and nine rebounds and Halle Maeda tacked on eight points.
Redondo’s Amiete Nyingifa recorded seven points and nine rebounds.
“We just didn’t get too cocky about our past wins against Costa,” said forward Kyra Hamlin, who finished with five points. “They really stopped our post players but our guards stepped up and made some big three pointers that helped us.”
Playing for the Southern California championship has special meaning for Mica Enriquez.
“I’m so excited to play at the The Pyramid,” the junior guard said “The CIF finals used to be held there and when I was young and my dad was coaching Redondo teams that reached the championship game, it was always a dream of mine to play there.”
Mira Costa head coach John Lapham said it was a good run for his team despite the three losses to rival Redondo.
“Were disappointed because we really thought we had another game or two,” Lapham said. “We felt like if we got through tonight we had a good shot at winning State. Redondo played really well. We made some mistakes, missed some free throws and defensive assignments and they didn’t. They were clearly the better team tonight.”
Lapham said this year’s squad is one he’ll never forget.
“We have 10 seniors on our team and they are the greatest kids to be around,” Lapham said. “Whether we won 26 games this year or lost 26, I will remember them more than the wins or losses. I’ll miss them immensely.”
The winner of the Redondo-Mark Keppel Regional Championship game will play the winner of the Northern California final between Dublin and Archbishop Mitty for the State Championship on Saturday, Mar. 28 at 2 p.m at Haas Pavilion on the campus of UC Berkeley.