Vicky Oganyan has coached the Burroughs High girls’ basketball team for 16 years and nearly 500 games.
Saturday evening Oganyan was probably one of her more tense victories, even though it had nothing to do with the scoreboard.
After helping Glendale Community College to victory as a player, she raced back to Burbank from Lancaster just before tip-off as her Indians earned a 67-50 CIF Southern Section Division 2A second-round victory.
“I’m not tired yet, but I’m sure I’ll be tired in a couple of hours,” said Oganyan, who estimated she left Antelope Valley College around 6:35 p.m. to make it back to Burbank for the 7:30 start of the Burroughs game. “Right now I’m just excited.”
Burroughs will now travel to Whittier Christian High Wednesday in a CIF quarterfinal contest.
Burroughs (24-6) jumped out to an early 16-1 lead against Arroyo Valley. While the Indians were unable to dominate throughout the contest, they clearly had the upper hand and were never in serious trouble.
The closest Arroyo Valley (24-6) would get was 33-25 with 31.4 seconds left in the first half following a free throw by Celina Estrada.
Arroyo Valley did have an outstanding effort from senior guard Nylah Prince, who had a game-high 38 points.
Although Burroughs had yet to see Arroyo Valley, a Pacific League opponent helped prepare for the game.
“This team is very similar to Pasadena in terms of their guards. Their post players weren’t as big and active as the Pasadena post, but definitely having to deal with guarding the Pasadena guards helped us in this game,” she said.
Center Kayla Wrobel finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, even though she sat for a good portion of the first half after picking up her second foul.
Burroughs did struggle in the second quarter without Wrobel.
“We wanted to make sure we kept everyone in front of us,” Oganyan said. “We knew Kayla was going to be coming back from foul trouble, so that was going to help us out with rebounding.”
Burroughs had another fine effort from junior Faith Boulanger, who finished with 23 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four blocked shots.
“Every game and every matchup is different. Right now we’re playing really good basketball,” Oganyan said. “The key is to keep working defensively and making it hard for the other team to score. We know it is going to be tough in the next round, but we’re excited about the challenge.”
Junior Dyani Del Castillo had 12 points for the Indians.
Sophomore guard Noor Fahs added 11 points.
Sydney Martin had five points for Burroughs.
