There was an overwhelming consensus shared at the postgame podium on Saturday by Rosary’s Rebekah Obinma, Camille Lira and Alli Iannone when asked what the team will have to clean up in making a run at a state title.
Their answer: free throws.
“I think they covered it, free throws is our biggest Achilles heal,” Royals coach Rich Yoon concurred after the 52-51 overtime win over Camarillo in the Division 2AA championship. “We got lucky today and the ball just happened to bounce our way at the end. … We survived it. We’re going to live another day to go back in the gym and work on free throws.”
Rosary finished just 9 of 23 from the charity stripe in the finals.
It overcame the inconsistency at the line with clutch buckets in crunch time. Iannone buried a 3-pointer to break a 47-47 tie with 1:55 to play in overtime. And after Camarillo responded with a basket on its ensuing possession, Lira banked home a floater with her left hand falling away from the basket to put the Royals back up by three with 39 seconds remaining.
A Rosary-Camarillo rematch appears to be a valid possibility as the two schools are the top-two seeds in the Southern California Regionals Division 3 bracket.
AROUND THE COUNTY
• The first round of the Southern California Regionals begins on Wednesday for Divisions I through V, meaning eight of the nine local squads still playing will be in action. The earliest potential county-vs.-county matchup in the regionals could take place in Saturday’s second round as Mater Dei and Huntington Beach were both placed on the bottom half of the Division II bracket. A Monarchs home victory over Eagle Rock paired with an Oilers road win against Poway would set the stage for an intriguing Saturday showdown.
• After losing to Long Beach Poly in the Open Division semifinals nine days ago, Troy coach Roger Anderson figured it was a forgone conclusion the Warriors would be headed back up to Fresno to play Clovis West (30-2) in the regional first round, citing his team’s low playoff seeding and Clovis’ top-rank in both their section and the state poll. The Warriors previously lost to the Golden Eagles, 78-51, on Jan. 21. That game was 30-27 at the half before Clovis went on a late third-quarter run that carried over into the fourth.
• Fairmont Prep is the lone county team that will open up against a fellow Southern Section opponent in the regionals, and because of it, the Huskies appear to have the toughest first-round draw outside of Troy when it welcomes Lakeside on Wednesday. The Lancers (23-5) won their Open Division first-round game on the road against Windward, 53-45, just over two weeks ago before dropping consecutive games to Harvard-Westlake and Alemany. Windward went on to win the Open Division’s consolation bracket and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the Division I regionals. Lakeside is a powerhouse of 10-seed if there ever was one. The Lancers have four players that average in double figures.
• Huntington Beach senior Frankie Wade-Sanchez concluded the playoffs as Orange County’s scoring champ. The Oilers forward accounted for a game-high 29 points in Friday night’s Division 1A championship game against Bishop Montgomery, upping her season average to 22.1 points per game. Wade-Sanchez averaged close to 27 points a game in Huntington Beach’s postseason run. Los Alamitos’ Cailyn Crocker finished second in the area at 21.6 points per game, while Troy’s Kianna Smith is third at 21.3 a night.
• Wade-Sanchez and Rosary’s Rebekah Obinma each put up first-half double-doubles in their CIF championship outings this past weekend. The Oilers senior had 11 points and 12 rebounds at the half against Bishop Montgomery. She finished with 29 points and 17 rebounds. Obinma scored 11 points and grabbed 10 boards by the break against Camarillo. She finished with 17 and 14, and shot 7-of-11 from the field.
