Oak Park girls win one, then lose in playoffs

The Oak Park girls’ basketball team parlayed four solid minutes of basketball—the game’s final four minutes—to win a come-from-behind first-round California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoff game vs. Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, 61-55, at home last Thursday.

Oak Park got four big baskets, including three three-pointers, in the game’s waning moments, to spark the Division III-A win.

Down 51-48 after two Notre Dame free throws, junior guard Shir Raanan hit a three-pointer from the right corner of the court to tie the score at 51.

After a Knights’ basket made it 53-51, junior guard Jamie Rauchwarger hit another three-point shot from the top, to put the Eagles ahead, 54-53.

After another Notre Dame basket, senior guard Lyndsey Medders hit a three-pointer from the left corner to give Oak Park the lead for good, 57-55.

A short jumper by sophomore forward Summer Barry upped the lead to 59-55 and two free throws by Medders closed out the scoring.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Medders assisted Raanan on a three-point basket then stole the ball twice and scored on fast-break lay-ups to ignite a seven-point spurt that gave Oak Park a 48-44 lead. But it was short-lived as Notre Dame scored seven straight of its own points to recapture the lead at 51-48.

The crowd at Oak Park High School was alive the entire game, never more so than when Medders made the two steals and subsequent baskets and a little later when the three three-pointers changed the complexion of the contest.

"The crowd helped so much," Rauchwarger said. "Getting us pumped up, getting everybody into it. It’s a big part of the game."

Raanan agreed. "I love this," she said. "When the crowd is going wild and your heart is pumping, you just feel the surge and the adrenalin is running through you."

The Oak Park players and head coach said the Eagles expected a quality opponent because Oak Park was moved up a division and therefore faced tougher competition in this year’s playoffs.

"I watched the film," said coach Lindsay Strothers. "I knew they would be a good team."

Raanan said, "We moved up a division so we kind of knew we had a lot ahead of us. We just tried to come in as mentally focused and intense as we could."

Medders agreed. "I think we realized any team we’re going to face, anybody who’s in the playoffs at this point, is going to be good."

Strothers said he made the mistake of making the three practices before the Notre Dame game fun instead of tough. "They weren’t intense practices," he said. "So when we came into the game, they were still in that fun-mode."

The coach and players agreed that Oak Park didn’t play its best game until the final four minutes vs. Notre Dame.

"We had a lot of brain lapses, which really cost us," Rauchwarger said. "We played four solid minutes at the end and that’s what got us here."

Barry agreed, saying, "I don’t think it was that they were that good, it was just that we weren’t really playing our game until the last couple of minutes. And that kind of hurt us."

Said Medders, "I think we just came out slow in the first half. We played well for that four-minute stretch at the end and took over the game … we’ve got to play those four minutes the entire game to keep advancing."

The latest turn in the dramatic season for Oak Park was the illness and hospitalization of Strothers, which followed shortly after Medders was reinstated after appealing a decision that had made her ineligible to play after transferring from Harvard-Westlake.

"I really wanted them to get this win because of all the adversity that we’ve gone through the whole year," Strothers said. "It’s just a nice way to start the playoffs."

Medders agreed. "Excuse me for saying this," she said, "but with all the (stuff) I’ve had to go through this year, to be able to start the first round with a ‘W,’ we’ve got to be feeling pretty good."

However, the Eagles’ season ended two days later with a loss on the road vs. Santa Ynez.