Spartans, Tigers battle in girls’ basketball
IMPERIAL — The winter sports season officially kicked off on Monday and Tuesday, with many local basketball and soccer teams taking to the road or remaining at home to open their season.
Two such local teams that saw action on Monday and Tuesday were the girls’ basketball teams from Central Union and Imperial highs.
Both the Spartans and the Tigers are competing in the San Diego Hoops Report Tourney and both teams traveled to San Diego on Monday to take on tough teams in their first games of the season.
On Tuesday, the squads had an opportunity to remain at home as the tourney pitted the two teams together.
The Tigers hosted the tourney matchup and worked to come away with a 47-31 win to move to 1-1 on the season.
Both teams are relatively young and lost key players to graduation, making the game a close one through the first three quarters of the game.
At the end of the first quarter the game was tied 10-10, with Central getting help from Destiny Turnage and Raquel Perez.
At the start of the second quarter Imperial’s only returning starter, Andrea Olguin broke the tie with a layup, causing Central to call the first timeout of the game.
The Tigers were able to gradually build a lead and went into the half with a 21-16 advantage.
After the break, the Spartans came out strong and worked to tie the game 25-25.
Imperial then changed its defensive game-plan, which pressured the Spartans and eventually helped fuel a Tiger surge late in the third and most of the fourth quarter.
“We’re a very young team, so right now we’re just working on coming together,” said Tiger Head Coach Rich Ponchione, whose team dropped just two games last season. “We had a lot of little and inexperienced mistakes, so we’re working on getting better every game.”
Helping the Tigers in the win was Malena Ponchione, who finished with 14 points, followed by Olguin with 12 and Kimberly Macias with eight.
Six of Macias’ eight points came in the fourth quarter, which helped create more separation for the home team.
“I think it’s good for the younger girls to see Kimmy step up in that way, because she is our only senior, and that’s what seniors are expected to do,” Ponchione said.
Both teams continue tourney action later this week, with Central traveling to face O’Farrell Charter at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and Imperial facing Granite Hills at 2:30 on Saturday.