A long and prosperous season by the Burroughs High girls’ basketball team came to an end without reaching and winning the CIF Southern Section Division I-A championship after losing to the No. 1 seed and host Mira Costa, 47-39, in the semifinals on Saturday night.
Even though, it was still a solid and fruitful campaign given this is the second consecutive season in which the Indians (24-8) reached the semifinals.
Several key Burroughs players were in early foul trouble and it clearly helped the Mustangs (22-8), who will be participating in their third straight title game.
“Early on the referees called it really tight,” Burroughs coach Vicky Oganyan said. “There were a lot of touch fouls. Kamryn [Cardenaz], Abbey [Ibarra] and Jordan [Meltzer] all had two fouls at the half, so I had to go to my bench. Foul trouble hurt us in the first half.”
Mira Costa led 13-10 after the first quarter while the Indians played the Mustangs even in the second quarter as each tallied 13 points and it was 26-23 at the intermission.
Burroughs even scored the first eight points and pulled in front 18-13 with just under six minutes left.
Burroughs surged ahead 34-33 late in the third quarter on a three-pointer from senior point guard Meltzer, who finished with eight points.
The two teams were even after three quarters, 34-34, and the Indians led briefly 35-34 early in the fourth quarter, but were then outscored 13-4 over the remainder of the quarter.
“We had chances in the fourth quarter. We stopped them three times defensively, but we couldn’t score,” Oganyan said.
The Indians were paced by senior guard Brooke Radcliff, who tallied 12 points. Radcliffe also pulled down six rebounds and had three steals, while Ibarra, a senior shooting guard had four points with three steals.
“It says a lot about our kids,” Oganyan said. “Especially the seniors. They all work hard and they’re 100 percent committed. They built team chemistry. We’re disappointed, but only one team wins.”