Sweet as Cake
By JORDAN IKEDA
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Friday, January 16, 2009

North’s girls celebrate their victory over El Segundo on Wednesday night with a round of cupcakes.

Photos by JORDAN IKEDA/Rafu Shimpo
El Segundo’s Lauren Sato appears to get hacked for a foul by North’s Danielle Quan, but no whistle was blown. The Saxons outlasted the Eagles, 63-33.

Shay Taba slices throught the El Segundo defense, for two points. Below, the Saxons’ D denies Sato of a clear shot at the basket.

Led by Quashan Vallery’s 19-point, 7-rebound effort, the North girl’s varsity basketball team celebrated (11-5) their 63-33 victory over the El Segundo Eagles (4-12) on Wednesday night with cupcakes.

“Great…very…excited,” guard Taryn Wong, who had 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in the win, told the Rafu in-between gobbling up her cupcake. “It’s a…good start…to league.”

The chocolate treats were actually in celebration of sophomore forward, Megan Padilla’s birthday, but they definitely added some icing to a hard fought victory that saw the Saxons triumph by 30 points.

Though North led the entire way, the game was a rough and rowdy affair through the first three quarters that featured both coaches yelling hysterically at missed calls and several players from both teams getting knocked to the floor while the refs swallowed their whistles.

“Our goal for this year is to play hard, play tough and give it all we got,” said El Segundo freshman guard, Lauren Sato, who had some dazzling passes, but was ultimately overwhelmed by the Saxon press.

Speedy sophomore guard Danielle Yamauchi can attest to the Eagles’ grit.

After the game, she nursed a jammed finger with an ice pack. The bumps and bruises didn’t hinder her game much though. She filled up the box score finishing with 4 points, 2 assists, a block, a rebound and a steal.

On the other side of the court, the Eagles fell victim to a few calls going the home team’s way. Despite the 30-point margin of victory, the game was far closer than the final score indicates.

At the half, the Eagles were only down a triple.

“Our coach told us we played three solid quarters tonight,” said El Segundo guard Lauren Villanueva. “We really kept up the intensity.”

It was the final quarter, however, that sealed North’s win. And what a quarter it was. After scoring a combined total of 35 points through the first 24 minutes of game time, the Saxons shifted into another gear with their full court pressure, forcing turnover after turnover all leading to easy buckets. They finished the last 8 minutes with a 28-point explosion, finally grounding the Eagles for good.

“I think a lot of it is our defense,” said senior Shay Taba who had 5 points and 3 rebounds. “As long as we get pumped up and everyone excited, and keep the energy up.”

That energy and excitement produced 16 steals, and a team-high 4 thefts by Joslyn Barnes who also led the team with 8 boards.

“It was a great present,” said Padilla, the second year varsity sophomore who had a stellar game finishing with 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals on her birthday. “Plus, I never get interviewed.”

“What you saw tonight was two teams knowing we were both right there, battling the whole time,” said Saxon head coach, Tina Gross who is very animated and passionate while sweeping up and down the sidelines. “My hats off to El Segundo, they came out on fire.
We were able to settle down a little bit, cool them off and then we were able to make our run.”

Coming into Wednesday night’s league opener, the extremely young North squad had gone 9-2, sweeping through the Valley Christian Tournament and finishing third in the Arizona
TOC (Tournament of Champions). Next up for them is Centennial tonight.

El Segundo faces Torrance tonight.