Jaguars Upset Knights to Take Third, 43-34
By David Boldt
The Cooperative boys saved their best game of the season for the end, and concluded the playoff tournament with a 43-34 win over Cambridge in the consolation game.
The Knights were playing without their lone senior and best rebounder, Fabricio Subirana, and clearly missed him, but the story of the game was the Jaguars’ improvement on both offense and defense. Cambridge had won both regular season meetings between the two teams.
The two teams played very evenly through the first half, taking turns at making offensive spurts. Cooperative got off to the quicker start, leading 6-2 early in the first quarter, but Cambridge came back and had the lead 13-11 by the end of the quarter.
The lead then see-sawed back and forth through the second quarter, and the two teams were tied 23-23 just before the end of the half at which point Nicolas Suarez hit a three-pointer to put the Jaguars ahead 26-23 at the intermission.
The Knights seemed to have the momentum as the second half opened a 31-26 lead before the Jaguars could get started. That didn’t last, however. Cooperative resurged, taking the lead back at 32-31 as the Knights seemed to run out of gas. By the end of the third quarter the Jaguars had taken charge, 39-33.
In fact both teams seemed somewhat deflated by their earlier efforts in the fourth quarter, but the Jaguars had the better of things, outscoring Cambridge in the final stanza 4-1.
For Jaguars, Suarez had 13, 12 of them in the first half. Andres Shin had ten; Josue Abuawad and Jose Mozza had nine, and Luis Peredo two.
Marcio Baio had ten for Cambridge; Gustavo Roca had seven; Gabriel Alonso and Juan Carlos Paniagua six each; Andre Hurtado three; and Alex Legrain two.
Knight Girls Blank Griffins 18-0
By David Boldt
The Cambridge girls varsity basketball team pitched a shutout against International, winning the consolation game for third place 18-0 in a contest played Friday.
The Griffins were victimized by both the Lady Knights’ ferocious defense and terrible luck shooting. Any shot that could have bounced in or out bounced out.
The Knights, for their part, were not playing at their peak. They were clearly showing the effects of a long week of basketball. Two of their starters had played two entire junior varsity games this week and a varsity semifinal in which Cambridge was defeated, but scored 32 points, the team’s high for the season.
The Knights led 5-0 at the end of the first quarter and 7-0 at the half.
The game was a fitting finale for senior Maira Lino, who has consistently been among the top scorers in the League and has started for Cambridge since she was in the ninth. She was one of the best three-point shooters in the history of the League, and the last remaining player from Cambridge’s championship years in 2007 and 2008.
Lino scored ten of Cambridge’s points, including a final three-pointer. Rene Barriga had four points for Cambridge, while Mako Ueno and Nicole Fermin had two points each.
