The San Marino High girls’ basketball team opened the season with two lopsided victories, marking a promising beginning to the new campaign.
In the Titans’ second game of the season, San Marino clamped down on defense in the second half against visiting Westridge and came away with a 47-15 victory on Nov. 16 in nonleague play.
“I thought that we came out with really good defensive intensity, trying to get up and pressure [Westridge],” San Marino coach Elizabeth Reuter said. “It puts us a little bit vulnerable to foul calls and things like that, but I thought we did a good job executing and just trying to be a bother to the other team. We disrupted what they wanted to do.”
Westridge (1-1 overall) scored what turned out to be the Tigers’ final field goal with just under three minutes remaining in the second quarter. The visitors did score the final points of the first half when Sarah Kong, who led the Tigers with six points, converted two free throws with 1:10 left before the break, at which time the hosts led 25-13.
After the Kong free throws, San Marino (2-0) held the Tigers scoreless for the next 12:48, which included shutting Westridge out in the third quarter.
Westridge had trouble with San Marino’s press, and its only points of the second half came in the fourth quarter with 4:22 to play when Josselyn Cheng made two free throws.
“[San Marino has] a lot of quickness. Their press was really on par,” Westridge coach Juliana Favela said. “It kind of inspired me to maybe teach our team a press.”
On offense, the Titans had 10 players in the scorebook, with two reaching double digits. San Marino junior Kailey Woo had 11 points, as well as three steals, and senior Chloe Lin netted 10 points, along with six rebounds and four steals. Titans junior Joleen Tanihaha and sophomore Liliana Mata tallied six points; the junior added seven rebounds and Mata three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Senior Malia Yu had four points and freshman Madeleine Tanihaha three. Sophia Papadopulos, Chloe Linden and Giuliana Reitzell each scored two points. Joyce Lin scored one.
“I thought Mata came off the bench and gave us a really good spark,” Reuter said.
Kong scored the first points of the game, but that was the only time the Tigers would hold an advantage. San Marino then scored the next five points and never trailed again. A basket by Finley Carver, off an assist by Lauren Lauderdale, pulled Westridge within 8-6, but the hosts scored the final six points of the opening frame to establish an eight-point cushion after one quarter. Lin had eight points in the quarter.
The Tigers scored first in the second quarter, but San Marino then went on a 9-0 run, with four points coming from Woo as she worked the paint. The lead peaked at 25-11 following a putback by Joleen Tanihaha. Kong hit two free throws for the final points of the half. Mata and Joleen Tanihaha each had four points in the frame.
The Titans took advantage of Westridge’s third-quarter drought and scored 12 points to end any remaining doubt. The scoring started with a steal by Papadopulos and layup at the other end. The run was finished by a layup from Woo off an inbounds pass. The San Marino lead was 37-13 going into the final period.
San Marino’s defense held up in the fourth, which saw the hosts take the frame 10-2. With the game in hand, the Titans got the rest of the bench involved, with four reserves getting on the scoresheet in the fourth.
“I think we came in with really high expectations of how we wanted to play. We did struggle a bit — didn’t come out how we expected — but we put up a good fight,” Yu said. “Our effort was there. Maybe not how we wanted it to, but we still came out, executed [and] still came out with a win.”
The victory follows a season-opening victory for the Titans. San Marino started the season Nov. 14 at home with a 61-16 dismantling of Workman. Woo led the way with 22 points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists. Lin contributed 11 points and Joleen Tanihaha had 10 to go along with six rebounds and five steals. Madeleine Tanihaha, in her first game as a Titan, contributed eight points in the blowout victory.
“We worked really, really hard in the offseason,” Reuter said. “I think we’re a little further along than we were at this point the last couple of years. They have worked really, really hard to get to where they are at right now.”
First published in the Nov. 23 issue of the San Marino Tribune
