Redondo girls basketball coach Marcelo Enriquez said he wasn’t surprised at the Sea Hawk’s slow start in their first playoff game of the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA championships.
Having a first-round bye, top-seeded Redondo had not played for 13 days and found itself in an unfamiliar position trailing by six points at halftime.
But Redondo (21-6) shook off the rust in the second half to pull away from visiting Ayala 56-42 and advance to the quarterfinals when the Sea Hawks will host Tesoro (23-5) Saturday at 7 p.m.
“That’s a long time to go without playing and it showed,” Enriquez said. “I’m glad we got the win under our belts.”
Although Redondo had a size advantage, Ayala held a 14-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and with the Sea Hawks having trouble with their inside game, the Bulldogs were ahead 25-19 in what was a foul-filled first half.
“At halftime, I brought up the long layoff and that we were going to go back to our bread-and-butter which is playing great half-court man-to-man defense and let’s get rid of the press and just focus on one thing,” Enriquez explained. “On offense, we needed to take one possession at a time and be patient. In the first half we had a lot of high-percentage shots in the paint that just didn’t go in. We were right there, just a little rusty. We ran our press only once or twice in the second half just to catch them off guard.”
Redondo – and senior guard Nao Shiota – took control in the third quarter. The Sea Hawks outscored the Bulldogs 20-11 and, after Shiota hit back-to-back 3-pointers, Redondo went in front 28-27 for its first lead since holding a 9-8 advantage early in the game.
While Ayala focused on Redondo forwards Amiete Nyingifa and Kyra Hamlin, Shiota capitalized scoring 14 of her team-high 21 points and four of her five trifectas in the third quarter.
“Nao Shiota was huge,” Enriquez said. “That’s a senior who wanted to extend the season.”
Shiota was just happy to get the win.
“My teammates found me when I was open and they made the shots that created the openings for us guards,” Shiota said. “We had 10 straight days of hardcore practice where we worked on our fundamentals. We knew we would come out a little slow but after we got going, it started to look like Redondo basketball.”
Ayala pulled to within one point to open the fourth quarter when Morgan Scheerer grabbed her own rebound and drove for a basket to make the score 39-38.
Redondo answered with a 9-0 run and Makenna Peneueta’s 3-pointer sealed the victory.
Peneueta finished with 12 points including two 3-pointers. Hamlin scored 10 points and Nyingifa added eight points for the Sea Hawks.
Also in Division 2AA, second-seeded Mira Costa (22-6) defeated host West Covina 62-35 and will host No. 10 Canyon/Canton Country (21-7) in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The Mustangs held a 37-19 lead against West Covina at halftime and outscored the Bulldogs 18-4 in the third quarter to put the game on ice.
In Division 1A, fourth-seeded West Torrance (21-7) throttled host Valencia/Placentia 71-36 and will host Newbury Park (15-14) on Saturday.
Ninth-ranked Peninsula (21-7) also advanced with a 59-35 win over visiting Paloma Valley. The Panthers travel to Burbank to take on top-seeded Burroughs (29-2) in a quarterfinal contest.
Third-seeded South Torrance (20-7) eliminated Mayfair 86-46 in a Division 2A game on Wednesday and will host No. 6 Patriot (23-5) on Saturday.
In Division 3AA, top-seeded North (24-2) had little trouble eliminating No. 9 Esperanza 66-26 on Wednesday. The Saxons host No. 5 Corona del Mar (22-7) in the semifinals on Saturday.
In Division 3A, No. 9 El Segundo (18-11) had its season ended with a 40-29 home loss to top-seeded Orange Lutheran (20-8).
Third-seeded Bishop Montgomery (16-13) reached the Division 4AA semifinals with a 69-40 win at Twentynine Palms. The Knights travel to face second-seeded Harvard-Westlake on Saturday.
Brackets and results are available at cifss.org.
