One more girls’ basketball tournament rundown
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With league play just a year away, let’s have a look a some of the big tournament games from the past week. Oddly, there were a lot of tourney blowouts this week.
AVALON: Blog blowout No. 1 comes courtesy of the gals over at Bishop Diego, who outscored their last two opponents by an average of more than 26 points to claim the tournament championship. Of course, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Cardinals beat their islander hosts, 53-25. After all, tournament MVP Larissa Gonzales (14.6 ppg) is a force in the paint and the Cardinals have gone 11-2 in nonleague play. I just hope they can keep things competitive when they play Oaks Christian in a Tri-Valley League showdown Jan. 8.
COSTA MESA: Valencia has already proven it’ll be a team to watch in Foothill League play and it cemented that reputation with a 56-37 third-place victory over Tustin on Saturday. The Vikings’ ‘big three’ of Chelsey Hastigan, Lindsey Hill and Starla Wright have been instrumenal in pushing Valencia to a healthy 10-5 start and I wouldn’t be completely floored if this team challenges Hart and Saugus for the league title.
LA CANADA: I knew Chelsea Carlisle would lead Oaks Christian past Hart for the title, but I never would imagine she’d do it while injured. A rib injury forced her to spend a few unpleasant moments lying in agony on the La Canada hardwood. However, that didn’t stop her from scoring a game-high 28 points in the Lions’ 64-53 victory. If Carlisle can score 28 points while injured against Hart, I’d hate to think of what she can do against Tri-Valley League teams when she’s healthy. Also, Fillmore finished third and Golden Valley took fifth.
SAN DIEGO SURF ‘N SLAM: After suffering its first loss of the season to the Mercyhurst lakeshow on Friday, you knew St. Joseph would come out with its wrists on fire. Behind a 15-point effort by Devin Riezebos, St. Joseph defeated Sonora, 56-26, Saturday in what I like to call blog blowout No. 2. Based on the results so far, don’t call me crazy for thinking the Knights just took their first step toward a 13-game winning streak.
-- Austin Knoblauch
