Woodbridge girls clinch PCL title outright

By TIM BURT / Staff Writer

Woodbridge High’s girls basketball team had already clinched a share of the Pacific Coast League title entering last week’s game with University.

But the Warriors wanted to win it outright, and they did with a 42-38 victory over University on Feb. 11 at Woodbridge.

It was the 25th league title for the Warriors (21-5, 9-1), who are seeded third in this week’s CIF 2AA playoffs. Woodbridge opens the playoffs tonight, hosting Saugus at 7 p.m. The second round is Saturday.

University (14-10, 4-6) also earned a playoff berth and will meet on the road tonight to take on Katella at Katella in the 1A division.

In the Woodbridge-University league finale, Woodbridge was led by Anjali Ghadi with 16 points and Lauren Baffo with 14 points. Laura Nolan and Yasmine Choroomi led University with nine points each.

“That was a really rough game,” Woodbridge coach Eric Bangs said. “I just thought we were unbelievably flat and all three games we played University, they were tough. They played hard the whole time and we didn’t play as hard, so it was very close.”

Bangs credited senior guard Sierra Vaglica for running “the club.”

“It wasn’t easy; Uni had a great matchup defense against us again,” Bangs said. “But Sierra making her last two free throws and three of the last four and holding their top player (Allison Piper) to four points was huge for us.

“Anjali and Sierra have been solid all year.”

Bangs was proud of his team for rebounding from an opening-round loss to Corona del Mar and winning nine straight after that.

He said the program’s success is a result of hard work by many.

“It’s always been a team effort with coaches and staff and parents and kids,” Bangs said. “To look up there and know we get to add another one is pretty sweet and to know we don’t have to share it, so that’s pretty good.”

He hopes the squad can have a solid playoff run.

“One through eight are really good,” he said of the playoff field. “Anybody can beat anyone.”

Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com

Warriors alone in first after win over CdM

Woodbridge’s girls basketball team unleashed a relentless defense Jan. 28 against Corona del Mar and came away with a 32-23 Pacific Coast League victory that put the Warriors on top of the league race.

Woodbridge pressed from the start, causing huge problems for CdM. The teams went into the game tied for first place in the league and CdM (16-5, 4-2) won the first-round game, 50-45.

“We sat with the team after the opening loss in league and said, ‘All you got to do is win four straight which isn’t easy, and then you have a chance to beat them here,’” Woodbridge coach Eric Bangs said.

The Warriors, who shared the league title with CdM last year, wanted the title outright, and the Jan. 28 victory was a big step toward that goal with just under two weeks left in the regular season.

“We had to tweak it,” Bangs said of the game plan compared with the first- round game. “All we did was really switch our two forwards; we put Anjali Ghadi on (Natalia) Bruening because she guarded (Krista) Anderson the first time and she had 18.

“We thought Lauren Baffo would do a nice job (on Anderson). And we went to full court man-to-man pressure. With six players (including the starters) it’s kind of hard to do, but when it’s for a championship game, you got to do it, so we picked up full court the whole time.”

CdM’s two big players were limited offensively. Bruening had 10 points, and Anderson 4 points.

Ghadi led the Warriors with 15 points. Baffo added 9 points.

“Nobody played really well (offensively),” Bangs said. “But it’s kind of hard to defensively all-out and play offense really well. Ghadi, Sierra (Vaglica) and (Lauren) Lum ran the show.”

“It was not a pretty offensive game,” Corona del Mar coach Mark Decker said. “First one to 30 wins, I guess, which is not exactly high-powered offense. But it was a frustrating night for us.

“Our post players were in foul trouble, and we weren’t getting them the ball enough. We really just didn’t do the things we needed to do on offense at all. We just did not want to handle the game the way we wanted to.”

Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com

Warriors top T'wolves, share top spot in PCL

By TIM BURT / Staff Writer

 

Woodbridge High’s girls basketball team led from the start and went on to defeat Northwood, 54-35, in a Pacific Coast League game Friday night at Northwood.

The Warriors (13-5, 2-1) moved into a tie for first place with Northwood, Beckman and Corona del Mar, who are also 4-1 in league.

Woodbridge was led by Anjali Ghadi, who had 25 points, including four 3-pointers. Lauren Baffo added 13 points.

But Woodbridge coach Eric Bangs said it was the Warriors’ defense, led by Lauren Lum and Tessa Shimizu, that was the difference.

“What made us look smart is that they did the things we wanted them to do,” said Bangs. “But anything can happen here. Last year, they just shot the lights out in the second half.

“It was a good effort by our kids. The defense was it. We had to hold them under 40. We reiterated that at the half and they only had 15 in the second half.”

Woodbridge led 30-20 at halftime, then outscored Northwood 13-7 in the third quarter to break the game open.

Kaityn Hsu and Lauren Ta had 11 points each for Northwood (9-8 overall).

“Woodbridge came out and played really well from start to finish,” said Northwood coach Ryan Bettencourt. “We got down early and just could not cut the deficit enough to make a difference.”