The girls’ basketball program at San Marino High hosted a varsity tournament featuring 12 teams the week after Thanksgiving.
The Titans landed in Pool C and began play against Glendale on Nov. 28. The Nitros came out on top 58-37, handing San Marino its first loss of the season. In the tournament opener for the hosts, Chloe Lin, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored 10 points while Malia Yu contributed nine points and 15 rebounds.
After the first setback of the young season, San Marino looked to bounce back, continuing pool play against Crossroads on Nov. 30. However, against the Roadrunners, the Titans fell behind and ran out of time to catch up, falling 53-43 to close pool play.
“I’m really proud of our girls and how we came out,” San Marino coach Elizabeth Reuter said. “When I’m in the process of making this tournament, I don’t want it to be just an easy tournament where San Marino feels really good about themselves and gets easier wins. It’s really about us playing really good competition, and Crossroads is that.”
San Marino trailed by five after the first quarter, 12 at halftime and 17 after three quarters. The trend continued in the fourth quarter, as Crossroads increased the lead to as many as 22 points with less than three minutes left. The Titans stayed the course and deployed the press on defense with success.
“We switched up and put on a press and, even though it was the fourth quarter, we were running, we were trapping, we were doing all we could to really make a difference and get the ball back because we were down and wanted to get back up,” Titans junior Kailey Woo said.
Behind the press, the Titans finished the game on a 12-0 run.
It started with a basket by Liliana Mata off an inbounds pass from Chloe Linden. The press then forced a jump ball, but it remained with the Roadrunners before they were called for an offensive foul in the backcourt trying to beat the press. Woo next got a basket to get the Crossroads lead to less than 20.
Crossroads put in its reserves in the final minute and a jump ball quickly returned the ball to the Titans. Lin scored off an inbounds play, then stole the ball back in the backcourt. She was fouled and made both free throws with 36 seconds to go. The senior then stole the ball in the backcourt again and made another layup. Crossroads missed a pair of free throws before Linden scored to set the final margin of 10, as close as San Marino had been since the middle of the second quarter.
Despite the run at the end, Crossroads was the dominant team, thanks in no small part to the play of Lulu Chahinian in the paint. The 6-foot-1 senior used her size advantage to rack up a game-high 22 points.
“Crossroads was really good. They hit some big shots,” Reuter said. “Their post [Chahinian] is unstoppable inside, and even then I thought we did a good job of trying to stop her.”
Woo led the way for San Marino with 16 points, including 12 in the first half. Lin also reached double figures with 10 points, including seven in the fourth. Linden had six, while Joleen Tanihaha had five. Mata finished with four points and Sophia Papadopulos scored two.
After starting, Yu came out early in the contest after a fall and did not return.
“Malia went down hard early in the first quarter and banged her knee,” Reuter said. “She had a little tightness, a little soreness, so we were a little hesitant. We just wanted to err on the side of caution.”
Despite the defeat, the Titans recognized the value of playing competition the level of Crossroads, which had also defeated Glendale the day before.
“I think that was a really, really good game for us, especially coming off a loss,” Woo said. “Even though we came off a loss, we came out really strong and we worked all the way through the game. All the way to the last second, we were all running and working as hard as we could, and I think that is really, really important.”
After finishing pool play with two losses, San Marino continued play over the weekend in the Bronze Division. The first game came against Maranatha on Dec. 1, where the Titans got back to winning with a 41-34 victory. Woo had a huge game against the Minutemen with 17 points, 16 rebounds and six steals. Lin chipped in nine points, while Mata put up eight points and collected seven rebounds.
San Marino followed that up with another victory to finish out the tournament with a 2-2 record.
This time it was a narrow victory over Arleta, 39-37. San Marino trailed by one going into the final quarter before outscoring Arleta 10-7 in the final frame for the win. Against Arleta, Woo finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Lin matched Woo with 15 points and also had four rebounds. Mata had seven points in the final tournament game.
First published in the Dec. 7 issue of the San Marino Tribune
