BISHOP’S TANDEM UNSTOPPABLE

Bishop’s 74, Carlsbad 62

Angie Robles and Renee Chong are not the smallest players on the Bishop’s High girls basketball team, but they are the biggest ones with the basketball in their hands.

On Saturday afternoon, Robles, who stands 5-foot-4, and Chong, who is 5-5, were so hot it almost seemed like they never missed.

The guard tandem rallied the No. 3-ranked Knights from a first-quarter deficit with 61 combined points in a 74-62 win over Carlsbad in the fourth annual Public vs. Private Schools Showcase at Cathedral Catholic High.

A 27-12 effort in the second quarter erased a 22-9 first-quarter deficit.

Tied 53-53 after three quarters, Robles and Chong scored 19 points in the final quarter to clinch the victory.

Behind their guard play, Bishop’s, now 12-2, has won seven consecutive games.

Robles led the way with 34 points — including six 3-pointers — along with seven rebounds.

Chong had 27 points and five rebounds, including three 3pointers.

“I am never surprised by anything they do any more,” Bishop’s coach Paris Johnson said. “They just play their game. They shoot, they attack and they get to the free throw line.”

Carlsbad (12-7) stayed in the game behind junior Madison Huhn, who scored 32 points by making eight 3-pointers.

But Robles and Chong were too hot for the Lancers.

“After the first quarter, I thought we had to get our stuff together,” said Robles, honored as the player of the game. “We couldn’t let them beat us after we beat them in the first game this season.

“We had to do a better job after the first quarter.”

Bishop’s went on a 10-3 run to open the final quarter, gave up two 3-pointers to Huhn and then scored the game’s final 11 points.

“I learned a few years ago to always think about the next shot,” Robles said. “It’s always the next shot. I play with amnesia. I didn’t understand that as an underclassman, but I have the green light to shoot and so does Renee.

“When you’re in the zone like we were, just launch shots. We both play that way.”

Carlsbad, which was 24for-69 from the field for 34.7 percent, got 12 points and eight rebounds from Alexa Mikeska and 10 points with nine rebounds from Brooklyn Kelly.

The Lancers just never had an answer to Robles or Chong.