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By Rick Assad
This will be the only time during the regular season that Flintridge Prep and Providence High will face each other in a Prep League boys’ basketball game because of the Southern California wildfires.
On Tuesday evening at the Fritz B. Burns Activity Center, the Pioneers seized control early and never let up and eventually took out the Wolves 66-54 as senior point guard Elijah Orjuela tallied a team-high 18 points and also added two from three-point range.
Junior power forward J.P. Birotte and junior wing Griffin Berschneider each scored 13 points for the Pioneers and junior wing Riley Murphy, who contributed two three-pointers, tossed in 10 points.
Leading the charge for the Wolves (12-7 and 3-1 in league) was senior wing Lawson Holland who accounted for a game-best 30 points including 18 points at the intermission as Flintridge Prep trailed 28-18.
Orjuela had 10 points in the first quarter as the Pioneers, who made 23 of 44 from the field for 52.2 percent, led 18-9 and the hosts had five players tally two points in the second frame.
Anthony Cosby is the Providence coach and was happy his team played to its standard.
“I really love my team. I’ve been blessed with great parents that have produced great kids. They play very hard, and they play for each other,” he said. “Against good teams like Flintridge Prep, great coaches like Rob Cartwright, you can’t win without toughness and unity. I like how we showed we’re a good team that fought off another good team.”
The Wolves sank 13 of 43 for 30.2 percent overall and made four of 18 for 22.2 percent at halftime.
Birotte added six of Providence’s 21 points in the third quarter as the Pioneers led 48-36.
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During this same stanza, Murphy, whose basket with 5:55 left in the first period made it 8-0, scored five points while Berschneider, who made one three-pointer in the third quarter, also tossed in five points that included a three-pointer.
Holland, who canned four from three-point range, continued his red-hot shooting after scoring seven points in the third period and sophomore point guard Miles Adashek contributed five of his nine points.
The final quarter saw the Pioneers (10-10 and 5-0 in league) score 17 points as Berschneider had six points.
Providence junior guard Edward Karaoglanian (six points) and sophomore shooting guard Madden Velasco both scored four points in the last quarter.
Junior guard Ezekiel Ngai contributed two points for the Pioneers in the second quarter.
The Pioneers sank 15 of 20 free throws for 75 percent and the Wolves made 19 of 29 for 65.5 percent and were outrebounded 30-27.