Chaminade works OT to finish second
When the fourth quarter turned to overtime against HarvardWestlake on Thursday, it became money time for Chaminade.
“Money time” is a phrase repeated at practice when it's time to finish a drill strongly, as they would hope to do in a game. Coach Jason Ancrum took inspiration from the final minutes of NBA games when players earn their value and money.
The Eagles' money was in the form of a 61-59 overtime win over the Wolverines that secured them second place in the Mission League.
“It's go time. We're all in,” Natalie Patrick-Aguilar said of money time. “The entire team, like, from the players on the court, to the people on the bench, everyone just gets so hyped because they know or we all know that it's our time to go.”
Deanna Thompson (24 points) tied the score at 52-all to send the game to overtime and hit a jumper to make it 54-all in OT, but Chaminade made timely free throws to get ahead and Patrick-Aguilar made the winning layup with 3.7 seconds left in OT for a total of 16 points.
“I caught the ball, turned around, I just kind of went for it,” she said. “I was like `you know what, this is it.' ”
Sierra Canyon had already locked up the Mission League title, leaving Harvard-Westlake (11-17, 5-5 in Mission League) and Chaminade (16-10, 6-4) to battle for second place with identical 5-4 league records.
The Wolverines opened the game on a 6-0 run, forcing Chaminade to gain its composure as the first quarter went on. Mya Patrick made two 3-pointers to bring the score to 11-9 with roughly three minutes left in the quarter.
Thompson came up with a block, then took the ball across the court for a layup
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to keep Harvard-Westlake ahead. The Wolverines had another block moments later, but Chaminade tightened up defensively to keep them from putting together a scoring run.
Valentina Guerrero scored on a putback to start the second quarter and set the tone for the Wolverines' rebounding. Guerrero got a basket off a rebound again halfway through the quarter to put Harvard-Westlake up 24-18.
Madison McDonald hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer for a 33-23 advantage at the halftime break.
Chaminade got to the free throw line in the third quarter to steadily build up to its first lead of the game, which was achieved when Patrick made a 3-pointer from the top of the key with less than a minute left. Alyssa Saldana consistently contributed by scoring and ended the game with 21 points.
Harvard-Westlake deployed a full-court press in the fourth quarter as the Eagles led 46-39.
“We were able to get back in the game and tie it up and send it to overtime,” Harvard-Westlake coach Melissa Hearlihy said. “We're quick and aggressive. We were in a little bit of foul trouble early, so I didn't really want to do that. So that was our way to try and get back in the game and I thought the kids did a good job.”
The Wolverines were already down a starter at the beginning of the game in Angelina Habis due to concussion protocol and lost Guerrero
in the second half due to what Hearlihy expects to be a broken nose. Guerrero scored 14 points. McDonald and Jamie Yue also fouled out.
“I just told them, `Don't give up,' ” Hearlihy said. “`You fought to get to this point. Let's get there.' ”
Chaminade hasn't finished as high as second in the Mission League since 2019, when it won the title. Ancrum, in his first year as head coach for the Eagles, guided them to second place while creating a fresh start for the program.
“This league has been so fun,” Ancrum said. “All the games are so competitive. Everyone's working hard against each other. I knew the game was going to be close like that. I didn't think it was going to be that crazy.”
Both Harvard-Westlake and Chaminade receive automatic bids to the CIF Southern Section playoffs and will learn their first-round opponent when brackets come out Sunday at 12:30 p.m.