Lady Knights edge Eagles 17-15 in cliff-hanger
By Ana Saavedra Banzer
Cambridge College
The Cambridge girls varsity basketball team gained a weak but efficient win over Christian Learning Tuesday in a playoff semifinal game played in the Christian Learning gym.
This was the game that would decide which one of these two strong teams was going to the finals Friday, and the Knights were the ones who got the victory, sending the Eagles to fight for third place on Friday.
In terms of results, these were the same as occurred in last year's semifinal in which Cambridge defeated Christian Learning in another hard-fought battle.
The Knights, although they finished behind both Cooperative and Christian Learning in the regular season standings, will now get a chance to defend the title they eventually won last year by a similarly indirect route.
Both teams started unimpressively, but they were trying, and they were trying hard! For the Eagles, center Tabitha Maloy, was an outstanding player. She was doing everything she could to stop Knights Raquel Lopez and Mariana Escaño from shooting. The Eagles generally put on an excellent defense.
Though the Knights were not playing as well as they have on other days, they were played with a consistently strong effort, and clearly were not willing to lose this important game.
The crowd at Christian Learning is usually loud and vocal in its support of the Eagles, but for this game the Knights had their own "cheerleaders" in the form of students who went to the game. Their cheers of "Let´s go, Cambridge, lets go!" and (very importantly in this game) "Defense! Defense!" almost matched the noise of the home crowd, and made the game more exciting.
Also adding to the excitement was the fact from the moment the game started until the final buzzer, we all had NO IDEA who was going to win! All four quarters ended in either a tie, or one or two points of difference. SOOO close that you couldn't avoid biting your nails.
In the fourth quarter it looked like Cambridge was going to take control. A three-pointer by Cambridge star Maira Lino, plus a timely basket by veteran Vania Reueda opened a six-point advantage, 17-11, with only a few minutes to go.
However, Malloy knocked in two shots in rapid succession to make it 17-15, and with 2:35 to go it was nail-biting time again.
It almost got even closer when a foul shot by Eagle Whitney Belovicz twirled around the rim -- before popping out. (Whew!)
Cambridge was trying to freeze the ball to run out the clock. Not even Lino was allowed to shoot as they tried to bounce the ball around the perimeter, and the Eagles tried to steal it.
Twice Chrtistian Learning players knocked the ball loose and almost got a fast break to go for the tying basket, but both times the ball went out of bounds and Cambridge got it back.
Time-outs were called with 22 seconds and 14 seconds left. Much strategizing and yelling.
Finally the game was over and the Knights won.
But this story is not over. We still have the finals! Will history continue to repeat itself?
Tune in Friday.
For Cambridge, Maira Lino had seven points. Raquel Lopez and Mariana Escaño had four points each, and Vania Rueda had two.
For Christian Learning, Tabitha Malloy had nine points. Kaylyn Lampen, Ruth Nyquist, and Hiromi Kuuchi had two points each.
Jaguars cruise against pesky Griffins, 34-17
After looking a little rusty in the opening quarter, the Cooperative girls varsity basketball team went on to efficiently defeat International 34-17 to gain a spot in Friday's championship -- but no one can say the Griffins stopped trying.
The Jaguars will now play against Cambridge in the final on Friday, a team they have defeated twice this year, though by close margins. The two teams tend to play well against each other and it should be another close game, unless Cooperative gets rolling as it did in the semifinal Tuesday.
International will play Christian Learning in the consolation game to determine third place. The Eagles have won both meetings between the two teams, but the Griffingirls gfave them fits the last time they met, and this game too could be close.
The Jaguars led only 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, with the difference betwen the two teams accounted for by Jaguar star Cecelia Aponte's three-pointer near the start of the game. Both teams were scrappy on defense, and Cooperative's attack wasn't clicking.
It started clicking the second quarter, however, and the Jaguars ourscored the Griffins 13-2 to take a 17-5 halftime lead. The rally was sparked in large part by the fine play of Jaguar freshman Sofia Sotelo, who fired in a three-pointer of her own.
The Jaguars continued to dominate play in the third quarter, though the Griffins also started to show more offensive spark. The score stood 28-10 going into the final stanza in which the Griffins outscored the Jaguars 7-4 as both teams substituted freely. International used all nine of the players it had in uniform, and Cooperative used eight.
Sotelo led the scoring for Cooperative with nine points, including two three-pointers. Ana Paula Peredo made eight points. Cecelia Aponte had five (including a three-pointer), Carla Limpias had four, Nicole Broersma two and Roseleny Kefer one. One point was not attributed by the scorekeeper.
Stephanie Gioto had eight points to lead the Griffins. Ines Fernandez had four, Fabiana Zelada and Natalia Suarez had two each, and Matilde Gamarra had one.
