Imperial's Ashley Bermudez races to the basket for a shot Wednesday evening against Olympian in Imperial. |
IMPERIAL — The Olympian High girls’ basketball team used its full-court pressure defense to perfection in the first half of its CIF-San Diego Section Division III playoff game here Wednesday, forcing Imperial High into numerous turnovers and capitalizing with easy baskets.
The Eagles beat Imperial 51-33, advancing to the quarterfinals and eliminating the higher-seeded Tigers. Olympian, 14-12 overall and 6-2 in the Mesa League, forced Imperial into 15 first-half turnovers, including on eight straight possessions in the first quarter.
The Tigers, 18-9 overall and 6-0 in the Desert League, trailed 5-4 midway through the first quarter when the flood of turnovers rolled in.
After an 8-0 Olympian run, Imperial was down 13-4 with two minutes left in the quarter.
“They were really quick and forced us into a lot of turnovers,” said Tigers’ senior captain Ashley Bermudez. “We just didn’t handle their press very well at all. We tried to pick it up in the second half and we did better, but we couldn’t catch up.”
Trailing 15-7 after the first quarter, Bermudez opened the scoring in the second quarter with two free throws to pull the Tigers within 15-9. But over the next seven minutes, the Eagles went on a 14-0 run and ended the first half up 29-9.
Olympian scored six baskets on layups and one on an offensive rebound in the quarter. In the first half, the Eagles made just two baskets outside the lane, getting 10 layups and two offensive rebounds.
“We try to put pressure on all our opponents and the girls did a good job of forcing mistakes and capitalizing on their mistakes,” said Olympian coach Carlos Vazquez.
The Tigers had better success after halftime, outscoring the Eagles 24-21 in the final 16 minutes of the game. Imperial cut Olympian’s lead to 43-29 with 3:27 left in the game after Tigers’ junior Dezrah Van scored six straight points. But that’s as close as it got as the Eagles made four-of-five free throws over the next minute to seal the game.
“I’m very proud of this team,” said Imperial coach Rich Ponchione. “I asked every girl to give 110 percent and they gave 120 percent. We came out of the locker room at halftime and showed a lot of fight when we could have thrown up the white flag.”
Van led all scorers with 10 points while Bermudez added six for the Tigers. Brittany Moses, Nirelle Davis and Alex Warren had eight points each to lead Olympian while Kalybriah Haskin added seven.
The Eagles beat Imperial 51-33, advancing to the quarterfinals and eliminating the higher-seeded Tigers. Olympian, 14-12 overall and 6-2 in the Mesa League, forced Imperial into 15 first-half turnovers, including on eight straight possessions in the first quarter.
The Tigers, 18-9 overall and 6-0 in the Desert League, trailed 5-4 midway through the first quarter when the flood of turnovers rolled in.
After an 8-0 Olympian run, Imperial was down 13-4 with two minutes left in the quarter.
“They were really quick and forced us into a lot of turnovers,” said Tigers’ senior captain Ashley Bermudez. “We just didn’t handle their press very well at all. We tried to pick it up in the second half and we did better, but we couldn’t catch up.”
Trailing 15-7 after the first quarter, Bermudez opened the scoring in the second quarter with two free throws to pull the Tigers within 15-9. But over the next seven minutes, the Eagles went on a 14-0 run and ended the first half up 29-9.
Olympian scored six baskets on layups and one on an offensive rebound in the quarter. In the first half, the Eagles made just two baskets outside the lane, getting 10 layups and two offensive rebounds.
“We try to put pressure on all our opponents and the girls did a good job of forcing mistakes and capitalizing on their mistakes,” said Olympian coach Carlos Vazquez.
The Tigers had better success after halftime, outscoring the Eagles 24-21 in the final 16 minutes of the game. Imperial cut Olympian’s lead to 43-29 with 3:27 left in the game after Tigers’ junior Dezrah Van scored six straight points. But that’s as close as it got as the Eagles made four-of-five free throws over the next minute to seal the game.
“I’m very proud of this team,” said Imperial coach Rich Ponchione. “I asked every girl to give 110 percent and they gave 120 percent. We came out of the locker room at halftime and showed a lot of fight when we could have thrown up the white flag.”
Van led all scorers with 10 points while Bermudez added six for the Tigers. Brittany Moses, Nirelle Davis and Alex Warren had eight points each to lead Olympian while Kalybriah Haskin added seven.
