In the final game of the tripleheader Middle School All City Girls’ Basketball championship matchups hosted at Poly High School on Saturday, Lindbergh beat Washington with a decisive 38-21 win to take the Division 2 crown.
“It’s huge,” co-head coach Taurean Ross said. “[Washington] beat us earlier in the first game of the season, so we wanted to make sure that we got back in, got that victory.”
Lindbergh took an early lead in the game, as a mere 45 seconds in, Nevaeh Johnson landed a three-pointer, followed shortly by a layup from A’lani McFashion. McFashion scored again three minutes in, and Mila Hunt also added to the Eagles’ total. Their defense held Washington scoreless until the fifth minute, when Washington’s Chrystelle Ortega-Martinez made a three-pointer. Ross and Ken Zavala, Lindbergh’s other head coach, knew that Ortega-Martinez would be a threat in the game, and wanted to make sure that their players were prepared.
“We knew that they were gonna be playing with a lot of effort and energy, so we wanted to make sure that our effort and energy was either equal to theirs or better than theirs,” Ross noted. “We wanted to make sure that we applied a lot of pressure, number four [Chrystelle Ortega-Martinez] and number eight [Elssie Gonzalez-Garcia] were their key players, so we wanted to make sure that we made it difficult for them to get the ball to score.”
The game was very physical, leading to many fouls, but flurries of missed free throws kept the action fairly choppy in the first eight minutes. However, Washington made two additional baskets in the last 15 seconds of the first quarter, bringing the score to 12-9 and leaving Lindbergh looking to gain some momentum back as they moved into the second.
“We just wanted them to play hard and make sure that we did what we practiced, what we’ve been doing all year, and that was to come out, execute, play great defense, and just play hard,” Ross said.
A’lani McFashion, while only a sixth grader, showed up yet again for the Eagles as the second quarter commenced, with two back to back layups three minutes in to bolster Lindburgh’s lead. Isabella Jiminez contributed a layup of her own with four minutes remaining in the half, and soon after, Mila Hunt made the first free throws of the game, landing both of her shots to bring the score to 20-9. Hunt and Jiminez as well as Nevaeh Johnson are all eighth graders, and Ross noted how instrumental their leadership has been this year.
“They pretty much led this group. Especially with them being the Division 3 champions last year, I think with that experience, they were able to lead us and guide our younger players,” Ross said. “Just working hard in practice, bringing that energy and effort and showing our younger players this is what it takes to be a champion.”
Closing out the half, Ortega-Martinez added another basket for Washington, and Johnson and McFashion each contributed a free throw, leaving the score at 22-11 as the clock reached zero and the teams took to the bench for halftime.
As the second half began, Lindbergh returned to the court with increased vigor, and held the Wolves to just three points during the quarter. Hunt, McFashion, Johnson, eighth grader Natalie Maciel, and seventh grader Ashante Bagley all contributed points to make the score 32-14, but their defense was what really stood out to co-head coach Ken Zavala.
“Nevaeh Johnson is always doing her thing. She’s the MVP in pretty much every sport she plays,” Zavala noted. “But Mila and A’lani stepped it up that second half and we needed to make that run, so they did a fantastic job just driving to the basket and Mila making herself available and just blocking or making everything difficult for them on the inside.”
In the fourth quarter, Lindbergh’s defense again came in clutch, as they guarded the hoop and did not let Washington score until there was one minute left, when Gonzalez-Garcia made a basket for the Wolves to bring the score to 38-16. She would score twice more in the next sixty seconds as well as make a free throw in an impressive flurry of action late in the game from the seventh grader, but when the buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 38-21 in the Eagles’ favor, and the players swarmed their coaches in excitement.
“This is my first year coaching middle school sports, so it’s huge,” Ross said of his team’s victory. “Especially to be Division 3 champions of last year, and then to come up to Division 2 and take down the defending Division 2 champions in Washington.”
