BUENA PARK, Calif. – Host and No. 4 seed Buena Park knew they would be facing one of the leading scorers in Orange County this season when they took the court against fifth-seeded Fairmont Prep of neighboring Anaheim and its talented sophomore Ayra Rajan.
In the end Rajan led all scorers with 33 points including eight three-pointers, but it was the superior size and depth of Buena Park that prevailed in a CIF Southern Section Division 2AA quarterfinal 62-56 victory.
“This was a big game, a big game for the school in general, and a big jump up for us.” said Buena Park head coach DeAnthony Wiley. “We went to the finals last year but it was in D4 and we didn’t get the home game in the quarterfinals.”
Last year Buena Park made it to the CIFSS 4AA title game where they lost a 46-44 heartbreaker to Rialto, but this year they got bumped all the way up to 2AA so a trip to the semis at this level is a huge accomplishment.
Junior guard Mya Barnes led five Buena Park players in double-figure scoring with 15 points. Junior guard Gloria Barrera added 14 points, freshman Riley Higgins had 12 points, sophomore post Alana White dropped in 11 points and sophomore Belle Harmon rounded things out with 10 points.
The game was fairly close most all the way with Buena Park (22-9) leading 16-15 after one quarter and 32-27 at the half, but with two minutes left in the third quarter the hosts were facing a 41-38 deficit, however a spurt to end the quarter saw the Coyotes holding a 45-43 lead. It was at that point that the excitement built for a bit of a raucous group of Coyotes and Huskies fans
Rajan scored to open the fourth to tie it at 45-45 but White got a perfect pass from Harmon to convert and Buena Park took a 47-45 lead. Rajan connected on her seventh three-pointer from somewhere around NBA-range and the Huskies re-took the lead at 48-47.
Unfortunately for the Huskies faithful their girls would never lead again, although they didn’t go down without a fight, pretty much solo style by Rajan.
Buena Park went on a 7-1 during which time White had two baskets for the Coyotes and the Huskies got a single free throw from Rajan.
At that point there was 3:21 left to play but Fairmont Prep wasn’t quite done. Two free-throws and three-pointer No. 8 for Rajan cut it to 58-56. Barnes made one of two free-throws and it was 59-56 with under a minute.
The play was set for Rajan to potentially get the equalizer but a costly over and back violation allowed Barrera to score off the turnover for a 61-56 lead with seconds remaining. Fairmont Prep couldn’t convert on the ensuing possession and Harmon closed out the scoring by making one of two free throws.
Rajan played her heart out but she didn’t get any real help in the fourth quarter and ended up scoring all 13 points for the Huskies. She just couldn’t do it on her own and as the game would down it was looking pretty apparent someone else was going to have to score for Fairmont Prep to win, it just didn’t happen.
“We kind of took that same thought process,” remarked Wiley about Rajan not being able to beat them single-handedly. “We mixed up the defenses pretty much as best we could to throw her off but she was hot.”
For Rajan and her Huskies teammates the season is over with them finishing with a very solid 22-9 record. As for Rajan, look for her to continue to be one of the top players in Orange County and in Southern California period next season.
For the young Coyotes they will get to howl at least two more times but it will be no easy task in the semis as they will be heading to Riverside County to face top-seeded Moreno Valley on Friday night. Moreno valley was a 76-53 winner over visiting Rancho Christian in its semifinal match-up.
“Just sharing the ball and communicate on defense which was a little hard tonight with the noise of the crowd,” responded Wiley when asked what the Coyotes have to do to keep going in the playoffs. “A lot of stuff we were trying to accomplish today we didn’t get done as cleanly as we wanted, so we definitely have to clean some stuff up.”
Win or lose Buena Park will advance to the state CIF Southern Regional playoffs.
