By Rick Assad
It was just one quarter, but for the Burbank High girls’ basketball team, the opening period versus visiting Arcadia was extremely promising.
That five-point advantage changed in the second period as the Apaches went to a hard press, and this turned around Friday night’s Pacific League game and the end result was a 52-44 setback.
Arcadia’s relentless press forced many turnovers and saw the hosts take 22 fewer shots from the field.
Two players scored in double figures for the Bulldogs (8-3 and 0-1 in league) and they were sophomore guard Ani Khachatryan who dropped a team-best 16 points as she drilled four three-pointers while sophomore forward Manina Tuputupu added 15 points.
Of the combined 31 points by this pair, 20 points came in the opening half as the Apaches outscored the Bulldogs 34-22 in the second half.
Junior Maddie Tran tallied 16 points for the Apaches who trailed 22-18 at halftime.
Khachatryan poured in three from three-point range and Tuputupu added four points in the opening frame as the Bulldogs made five of 13 for 38.4 percent from the field.
Meanwhile the Apaches (8-1 and 2-0 in league) struggled as they made three of 15 for 20 percent from the floor.
Burbank nailed four of 11 for 36.3 percent in the second period as Khachatryan dropped her fourth three-pointer of the evening and scored five points.
Arcadia made four of 14 for 28.5 percent and four of six for 66.6 percent from the free-throw line in the second frame.
Arcadia, which made 17 of 65 for 26.1 percent, outscored Burbank 24-10 in the third quarter as Tran, who made four three-pointers, scored eight points as she hit a pair of three-pointers.
Freshman Misaki O’Donell tallied four of her 10 points in the frame and teammate sophomore Emma Wang added four of her six points as the Apaches led 42-32 heading to the fourth period.
Burbank, which made 15 of 43 for 34.8 percent, outscored Arcadia 12-10 in the fourth period as Tuputupu accounted for five points.
Junior guard/forward Annabelle Setaghian scored nine points and junior guard Andrea Aparicio and junior shooting guard Natalie Mergerdichian each added two points.
The Apaches nailed five from three-point range while the Bulldogs dropped four.
Arcadia outrebounded Burbank 39-38 and had an edge 21-20 at the intermission and made five of 12 for 41.6 percent while the Bulldogs drilled nine of 12 for 75 percent from the stripe.
Burbank’s next league game is Monday on the road against Pasadena with a 5:15 p.m. tip-off.
