Imperial girls rack up three wins on road

Prior to their win over the Ramona High Bulldogs on Dec. 1, the Imperial girls’ basketball team had been mired in an uncharacteristic four-game losing streak.

The home victory seems to have lit a spark in the Tigers, because they haven’t dropped one since, winning three on the road (against Patrick Henry, Eastlake and Mt. Carmel Highs) to balance their earlier losing streak with one made out of wins.

They’ve spent most of their time in this series of road games bludgeoning their erstwhile foes. Their average margin of victory has been 35 points. Only once did the Tigers find themselves in anything resembling a scrape, when an incredibly “iron-unkind” first quarter saw them down 6-3 against Eastlake after one.

Like most statistical anomalies, that one was shortlived.

Once Imperial’s shooting percentages started lining up with their averages, the game became a highly uneven affair, with the Tigers winning 56-25.

Their most recent game was against Mt. Carmel on Tuesday.

The Sun Devils entered the matchup undefeated and might have figured on playing the Tigers tough, but they proved unequal to the task.

Imperial got out to a 14-2 first-quarter lead and sat on Mt. Carmel the rest of the way, ultimately winning 58-26.

Powering the Tigers during this run have been the usual suspects.

Junior guard Monique Carrasco led the pack with 18.7 points per game, senior captain Andrea Olguin followed with 13, junior guard Malena Ponchione added 10.6, and center Abby Orman — also a junior — chipped in 10.3.

The wins give the Tigers an overall record of 6-4 ahead of Thursday’s game against 5-0 Otay Ranch in Chula Vista, which figures to be a genuine challenge, as the Mustangs have proven to be much more offensively apt than the Sun Devils so far.