Lions roar past Heralds in 2nd half of semifinals
LANCASTER — The Eastside girls basketball team has a strong belief in its abilities, along with a drive to make their dreams come true.
The Lions showed that confidence and drive in a 61-42 victory over Whittier Christian in the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 4A playoffs on Saturday at Eastside High.
Eastside will play in its first championship game at Noon this Saturday against Palos Verdes.
“It feels so good,” Eastside senior Aprill Medrano said. “We have a lot of momentum and we want to take it all the way.”
The game was tight in the first half, but the Lions pulled away in the third, outscoring the Heralds 24-8.
Eastside led 25-24 at halftime following a buzzer beater 3-pointer by Niela Marshall. She was taken out with a minute and a half left in the second quarter after being charged with three fouls.
Whittier Christian took a 2422 lead after a 3-pointer by Jatniel
Cabrera.
With 5.7 seconds left in the first half, Marshall came back in the game and knocked down a 3-pointer right before the buzzer to put the Lions ahead 25-24 going into the break.
“I’m not going to lie, getting into foul trouble, it kind of like lit a fire under me a little bit,” Marshall said. “I came in and I shot that 3. Not to sound cocky, but I thought it was money, I thought it was going in.”
Whittier Christian’s large contingency of fans, with a sizable student section, let out a collective groan when Marshall hit the pivotal shot.
“I loved the energy, though,” she said. “They had their student section going, the chants were going, ours was going back and forth. Just the energy, I love it, the competitiveness. We’re both good teams, nobody was playing dirty, it was clean. It was a nice basketball game. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Obviously, taking the dub always makes it 10 times better.”
Things got a little shaky at the beginning of the third quarter as
the Lions were slow to start.
Whittier Christian took a 27-25 lead after a 3 by Zoe Sanborn to start the quarter. Medrano tied it up with a bucket and Whittier Christian took a one-point lead when Cabrera knocked down 1-of-2 free throws.
Then, the Lions went on a tear.
Medrano hit a 3-pointers to take back the lead, 30-28, starting a 16-0 run. After a basket by Marshall and two free throws by Kayla Correa, Eastside led 34-28.
Then the momentum changed for good as the Lions knocked down three straight 3s.
Mona Fajardo had two 3s in a row after missing a few in the first half.
“Mona had missed five straight 3s and I told her on the sideline, I said, ‘You’re going to hit this next one. Shoot with confidence,’ Eastside coach Charles Hall said. “She said, ‘OK, coach.’ She hit it and just looked at me, like yeah, you just needed more confidence.”
Fajardo agreed that was the turning point of the game for the Lions.
“It felt good, because I felt like at a certain point and time, we started to get all messed up,” she said. “We were forgetting what kind of team we are and how far we got and what we’ve done to get this far.
“I was trying to tell myself, ‘Bring the confidence, be the one to show them who we are. Remind them how aggressive we can be and how much skill we have as a team.’ After I hit that, everyone else started following along, too. I was like, ‘OK, we’ve got our momentum back and now we’re good.’”
Medrano followed with a 3 of her own and Eastside led 43-28 before the Heralds scored again with 1:35 left in the third quarter.
The Lions led 46-32 before Medrano knocked down a buzzer beater of her own at the end of the third quarter to put Eastside up 49-32.
“That was a nice pass by my teammate — she got me right there,” Medrano said. “And that just changed the whole momentum right there. That got the crowd going, too.”
The Eastside defense caused chaos in the first quarter, as the Heralds threw the ball out of bounds four times. Whittier Christian started to pick it up in the second quarter, but the Lions were able to make the adjustment at halftime.
“Honestly, this was probably the biggest game of their high school careers,” Hall said of his players. “So, I really just had to sit them down at halftime and tell them, ‘We’re meant for this.’
“We’ve been teaching them resiliency and mental fortitude all year. And, these are the moments where you either show you have it or you don’t. I really have told these girls from the beginning, they have it. They have everything it takes to be a championship team and they showed it right there. This is going to give us some momentum going into the championship and the state title.”
Carson Temper led the Heralds’ charge in the first quarter, scoring six of her team’s eight points. In the second quarter, it was all Cabrera as she scored 12 of her team-high 18 points in the frame.
But the two players combined for just 11 points in the second half.
“Our defense was pretty good today,” Medrano said. “We had a lot of key defensive stops. They have a couple of good players and we were able to hold them down.”
Marshall led the Lions with a game-high 22 points, including going 9-for-13 at the freethrow line and knocking down a 3-pointer. She also had a big blocked shot in the first quarter, which she took down to the other side of the court. Her shot missed, but Correa rebounded it for a layup.
“My teammate, having my back as always,” Marshall said.
Medrano and Fajardo were both on the 2021-22 Lions squad that reached the quarterfinals, which was the furthest the program had been at that time. Now, the championship is the furthest the team has gone.
“I’ve been wanting this since freshman year, since I came and I was a freshman on varsity,” said Fajardo, who scored 11 points with three 3s. “We’ve been fighting, fighting, fighting year after year … just to get to the championship. There’s only one other year we ever made it to playoffs.”
After the championship, Eastside will start play in the state tournament, their first time earning a bid.
“We can’t wait, we’re so excited,” said Medrano, who scored 13 points with three 3s. “And then we have state, too.”
Marshall, who transferred to Eastside from Las Vegas this year, is also anxiously awaiting the championship game and the state tournament.
“I’m super stoked for the championship,” she said. “Coming into this game, this was like the new, most important game of my high school season. Now, I have another most important game of my high school season. And then I’ll have most important game of my high school season.
“It just keeps progressing and I love how it’s progressing, I love how my team is doing.”
The title game is also important to Hall, who is in just his second year of ever coaching, coming from a personal trainer background.
“I’m very excited,” Hall said. “I love coaching. I love teaching this next generation how to play the game the right way, how to use basketball as a tool to get you where you want to go in life. A lot of these girls, their lives are going to change because of this basketball game.”
Correa scored eight points for Eastside, while Adriana Milton put in five points and Dominique Burnett scored two.
The Lions are hoping their talent, chemistry and passion will get them their first CIF title in girls basketball.
“All our players, we love each other,” Medrano said. “You can tell on the court how passionate we are about the game.”