Birmingham's pace enough to leave ECR behind
Birmingham used a fast tempo to control the ball and beat El Camino Real 68-53 on Friday night at Birmingham High.
“We don't really like having the other team control the game,” Zoee Mitchell said. “Win or lose, we go at our own pace and we take our time and we finish.”
Mitchell led Birmingham with 15 points, followed by Lili Martinez with 13 points and DeeDee Berry with 12 points.
Laila Bowens scored 22 points for El Camino Real and Amir Smith chipped in 12 points.
Birmingham (12-5, 2-0 in West Valley League) came out fast, pushing the tempo to the tune of a 10-6 lead, but El Camino Real adjusted.
Amirah Smith hit a turnaround jumper and made the and-1 to cut the deficit to 10-9. She later scored on another jumper to tie the score at 12-12 with 3:27 left in the quarter.
The remainder of the quarter the teams were neck and neck. Andrea Arosemena made two free throws to push Birmingham ahead 18-17 at the end of the quarter.
The Patriots surged again at the start of the second quarter and fought off the Royals (9-6, 1-1) for a 34-28 halftime advantage. Berry made back-to-back layups and Sammy Velazquez made a steal and went in for a layup for the final basket
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of the half.
Andrew Schultz is in his first year as head coach for the Royals and takes over a program that went 8-21 overall and 3-7 in West Valley League play last season. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Los Angeles City Section Division I playoffs.
“We're starting to learn how to play basketball the right way,” Schultz said. “They've just been getting better and better every day since I started working with them over the summer.”
Birmingham got ahead and stayed ahead in the third quarter when Annette Jones drove to the hoop for a layup and a 49-34 lead with 1:35 left.
The Royals briefly battled back, but the Patriots defense responded as Velazquez snagged two more steals for layups in clutch moments.
The Royals had one more run with roughly two minutes remaining, but Berry drained a 3-pointer as Birmingham's pace picked up once again without sacrificing efficiency.
Granada Hills Charter and Birmingham are the two unbeaten teams in the West Valley League and will meet on Jan. 22 at Birmingham.
“Everybody's talking about us being at the top,” Birmingham coach Victor Koopongsakorn said. “These girls have never been in that position before of defending the lead. So let's see if we can have that mentality of taking care of business.”