The Culver City High School girls’ basketball team started their season with a 38-25 win over Crossroads of Santa Monica/St. Mary in the Culver City Basketball Tournament.
Their next two games in the tournament were against St. Bernard and Los Angeles View Park. They ran past St. Bernard 77-36, and they beat View Park for the championship, 56-47. The 12-team tournament ended on Saturday.
“We had first-game jitters but we played a pretty well,” said Coach Julian Anderson after the Lady Centaurs beat Crossroads. “We need to do a few things to get better. If we can play as a tight- knit group, we should be alright.”
This year, the defending CIF champion Lady Centaurs will have to replace CIF Player of the Year Michelle Curry and All-CIF Kelsey Ueda.
“We don’t have the great player who stands out like last year,” Anderson said. “We need to become a brick wall.”
Assistant coach Tom Nakayama says the Lady Centaurs rely on two basic components. “We stress defense and fundamentals,” he said. “If our shooting is off, we can count on our defense.”
The Lady Centaurs will rely on Kailey Tooke, Lindsey Tanita, Megan Yoon, Katie Lin, Gwendolyn Machado, Kate Suyetsugu, Alexis Aquino and Alexis Arancibia.
“Kate is really helping us at the guard spot and on defense,” said Anderson.
The Lady Centaurs travel to the Lone Star state of Texas to play in the McDonalds Classic in El Paso. They are scheduled to play three games in the McDonald’s tournament.
Culver City wants to have a solid preseason and get ready to defend the Ocean League title they have won the last three years.
Boys Open with a Loss
The Culver High boys’ basketball team on Monday dropped their first game to Harvard Westlake, 61-31, in the Mira Costa Pacific Shores Tournament. They played Mira Costa yesterday and they met Carson today at 3 in the Mira Costa tournament.
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
