Greubel helps Foothill hold off No. 7 Canyon
Nothing comes easy in Century League girls basketball.
No. 5 Foothill withstood No. 7 Canyon's third-quarter charge and held on for a 53-46 victory on Thursday night at Canyon High.
The Knights (16-4, 6-1) maintained second place in the Century League by sweeping the season series against the Comanches (14-7, 4-3).
"They are a good team," Namba said. "Anytime we beat them, anytime you get a win in this league, you gotta take it especially on the road."
The Knights led by as much as 14 points in the third quarter, but Canyon kept chipping away at the lead and cut it to 40-36 on Lindsay Uyematsu's 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter.
"We told them that was going to be the case," Namba said of Canyon's tenacity. "We're not going to get up enough where they're going to give up. They are too well-coached. They've got too many good players out there that they are not going to make a run.
"We told them we just gotta hunker down. They are going to make their push, we're going to make our push and ultimately just play smart and we should have a good shot at it. Fortunately, Molly hit a couple of shots, we got a couple of lucky breaks, they missed a couple of easy shots ... a little luck and a little skill goes a long way I guess."
UC Davis-bound Molly Greubel spent most of the game getting her teammates involved in the offense before scoring eight of her 17 points in the fourth quarter to help the Knights pull away from the Comanches.
Greubel's 3-pointer with 4:55 remaining gave Foothill a 48-40 advantage and the Comanches were never able to recover.
"When they got within four I was like, 'There's no way I'm letting them get any closer,'" Greubel said. "My 3-point shot was pretty good tonight and they were playing off a little bit off to help down in the post. I just took my open shots and tried to play a solid game and we ended up winning."
UC San Diego-bound Taylor Hirz recorded a double-double, finishing with 11 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, and Hailey James had 13 points and six rebounds for Foothill.
Foothill's defense kept Idaho-bound Christina Salvatore and Cal State L.A.-bound Shanice jackson to nine and eight points, respectively. Uyematsu was the only player in double figures for Canyon, finishing with four 3-pointers and 12 points.
In the Century League:
No. 2 Brea Olinda 66, El Dorado 38: Anna Kim scored 14 pointsand Shaylissa Jarrett had 11 points as the visiting Ladycats (16-4, 7-0) dispatched the Golden Hawks (11-11, 1-6), who got 19 points from Brooke Salas.
In the Trinity League:
No. 6 JSerra 53, Rosary 44: Jenna Morris scored all nine of her points in the second half as the visiting Lions (18-3, 4-1) rallied from a five-point deficit to defeat the Royals (12-11, 1-5).
In the Orange Coast League:
Godinez 49, Estancia 25: Kikey Ramos and Lilian Lete scored 13 points apiece and Aundrea Colunga had 12 points for the visiting Grizzlies (16-4, 5-0) who retained sole possession of first place in league with a victory over the Eagles (10-10, 3-2).
Follow Carlos Arias at twitter.com/LosOCVarsity.
