BRENTWOOD, Calif. - For nearly three quarters, it appeared as if Aragon would have enough to topple a young but favored Laguna Creek team in the opening game of the West Coast Jamboree at Heritage High School on Friday morning. But then the Cardinals found their stride, spurred by a strong end to the third quarter from sophomore Ahrray Young, and then pulled away over the final eight minutes for the 65-55 victory in the Pearl Division quarterfinals.
Young scored Laguna Creek's final eight points of the third quarter, as the Cardinals went on a 14-1 run which spanned the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarters. That turned what had been a 48-40 Aragon advantage into a 52-49 Laguna Creek lead, and the Cardinals (10-1) just kept adding on from there. When freshman Malea Egan scored on a putback with under four minutes remaining, the Laguna Creek lead had swelled to 58-51, extending it to an 18-3 run since just over a minute had remained in the third quarter.
The Dons (4-5) cut the lead back to three points at 58-55 when sophomore Megan Grant scored on a lay-up, but Eva Taylor helped ice the game for the Cardinals, hitting four straight free throws in the final minute, scoring eight of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. The shift in momentum, however, was largely due to the Young's late third-quarter spurt. 10 of Young's 17 points came in the third quarter, and she triggered the big scoring run with a three-point play, then hit a transition lay-up to cut the Aragon lead to three points at 48-45. After Lydia Manu hit a free throw to get the lead back to four, Young ended the quarter with a big three-pointer, getting the Cardinals as close as they had been since the first quarter.
"In the second half, it was more of us doing the little things. We stress our big's running the floor and creating our opportunities that way, and that's something we were really able to do in the fourth quarter," said Laguna Creek coach Cody Norman. "They shot the lights out in the first half, but even though we are young, we are blessed with girls who have really good basketball intelligence, so we are able to adjust and find our rhythm."
Aragon made its living from the outside early in the game, draining four three-pointers in the first quarter to take a 17-15 lead after one period of play. Jordan Beaumont hit a pair of shots from well beyond the arc for the Dons, but a Laguna Creek team which started all freshmen during a 26-4 campaign last season showed off its penetration game early as well, as freshman point guard Laila Barron continually drove into the lane, twice finding 6-foot-1 sophomore post Lesieli Manupule for easy lay-ups.
The Dons forged a five-point lead at the half, 34-29, as Beaumont and Grant had 10 points each in the first half, but Laguna Creek made its strategy clear in the second half, as it repeatedly fed the ball to Manupule, who finished with a game-high 18 points despite not scoring in the fourth quarter when the Cardinals pushed the tempo in the final minutes.
Beaumont and Manu finished with 13 points each to lead Aragon, despite Manu sitting most of the first half after picking up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game.
Laguna Creek advances to face Vanden in the Pearl Division semifinals, while Aragon will face Carondelet.
