After tough loss, OPHS girls’ basketball team ready for league

Acorn Sports Writer


'LISTEN UP'--Oak Park's girls' basketball Head Coach Lindsay Strothers talks to his players during a timeout at a recent game vs. Chaminade. The Eagles beat league foe La Reina, 68-41, Tuesday.

‘LISTEN UP’–Oak Park’s girls’ basketball Head Coach Lindsay Strothers talks to his players during a timeout at a recent game vs. Chaminade. The Eagles beat league foe La Reina, 68-41, Tuesday.

The Oak Park girls’ basketball team played highly regarded Chaminade (12-2 coming into this week of play) last Friday night in a final tuneup for Tri-Valley League action.


The Eagles, who enter league play with a record of 9-5, ran out of steam in the fourth quarter in a game that the Eagles (Chaminade shares the same nickname) surged to win, 71-56, on the strength of a 47-point second half.


In the first half, in a game played at Oak Park, the Eagles of Oak Park took a 12-10 lead after one quarter of play.


Jamie Rauchwarger hit a free throw to tie the score at ten before hitting a buzzer-beater off the glass to give her team a two-point advantage after one period.


Rauchwarger’s five first-quarter points, four by Michelle Bregar, and three by Holly Stewart accounted for Oak Park’s 12 points.


In the second quarter, Bregar notched eight more points, Stewart three and Kim Bryan caught fire, scoring 10 to help the Eagles increase the lead over Chaminade of West Hills to 35-24.


Although Chaminade battled back to within one point five times during a flourish in the third quarter, Oak Park held on to lead, 49-48, heading into the final stanza.


Chaminade’s Christina Zdenek (10 points) and Cynthia Lai (11 points) helped spark a 23-7 fourth quarter after Elizabeth Trent had scored 12 third-quarter points for Chaminade.


For the game, Zdenek led with 21 points, 16 coming in the second half, while Lai and Trent each scored 17.


"We ran out of gas," Oak Park Coach Lindsay Strothers said of Chaminade’s second half comeback. "We weren’t able to get the job done on the defensive boards, and to stop the penetration."


It was defense that Chaminade coach Kelli DiMuro preached for her team to intensify at the halftime break, this despite only scoring 24 points in the first half.


DiMuro said, "I told them (at halftime) ‘Defense or nothing.’ I didn’t care if they missed any shots, I just cared about them transitioning back on defense. That’s what killed us in the first half."


Chaminade’s stifling defense propelled its offense, as it turned out. But not after the first half scare, in which DiMuro was impressed with the other Eagles.


"They’re very disciplined," DiMuro said of Oak Park. "They make their shots and we were having trouble pressing them in the first half. They’re a good team."


Strothers and his players felt confident as the Tri-Valley League season approached.


"I think we’ll be strong in league," Strothers said. "Everybody usually gives us a battle. But I feel good about the position we’re in right now."


Oak Park was down to only nine players vs. Chaminade as Alexis Stiny is out for the season with a recently-discovered herniated disc in her back, and Britt Deegan was out with the flu.


Bregar and Bryan, both seniors and the Oak Park Eagles’ two captains this year, each said that the their team would be prepared for league play, which began Tuesday vs La Reina, a 68-41 OPHS win.


"This loss will probably only intensify us," Bregar said after the game vs. Chaminade. "We’ll want to win league even more. Once you come off a tough loss like this you want to come out and beat the next team."


Said Bryan: "We’re ready for league. Today (vs. Chaminade) we didn’t play as well as we could have. We got in foul trouble and that hurt us."


Bryan said the team’s second- place finish in a tournament at Ayala High last week was a good sign. "We got to the championship game," she said. "We played really well." The Eagles won four games before bowing to Florence of Sacramento in the Ayala Tournament.


Bregar said the team is beginning to gel as the league season begins. "We’re trying to learn to work together as a team and it’s starting to come together," she said.


Against Chaminade, Stewart, a 5-foot-10 junior, led Oak Park with 17 points, Bregar, who stands 5-foot-7 added 16 points, and Bryan (5-foot-8) contributed 13.


Rauchwarger, a freshman guard, had seven points, while Jannel Buckley, a 5-foot-4 junior had two, and Shir Ranaan, a 5-foot-6 freshman added one point to the Eagle cause.




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