ANAHEIM, Calif. – In a night of more than one upset in the state CIF Regional Division I first action that saw Northern Regional Division I top-seeded Folsom ousted by No. 16 San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno, Southern Regional top-seed and host Fairmont Prep (22-10) started out looking like they were ripe for the picking, but ended up getting it together for an 81-61 victory over No. 16 Birmingham-Lake Balboa.

Junior sharpshooter Adyra Rajan, who came into the game pursuing an assault on climbing the ladder on the Most Three Point Field Goals Made (Season) list in the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record, came out ice cold like the rest of her Huskies teammates, but after missing her first five three-point attempts but on her next eight attempts she made five and finished with a game-high 27 points plus nine rebounds, four assists and two steals.

With her five three-pointers Rajan now has 154 this season and that gets her past California all-time leading scorer Destiny Littleton (150 three-pointers at Bishop’s-La Jolla in 2017 and 4,000 career points) and into No. 6 all time. As Rajan continues to raise the bar for three-pointer shooters she now will get a chance to challenge Jessica Grant of Mission Hills-San Marcos when Fairmont takes the court on Thursday to face No. 9 seed Harvard-Westlake-North Hollywood, a 60-57 winner over No. 8 seed Francis Parker-San Diego. In 2022, Grant, who is No. 5 all time, had 162 three-pointers.

In response to being asked about her poor start, Rajan had the perfect answer.

“It’s all about how you end,” Rajan remarked.

Junior Sarah Aldeguer, a native of France, had a solid game and finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and three assists. The Huskies power forward even drained two three-pointers. Sophomore Kayla Priest made three three-pointers and added 11 points. Senior Maria Mejia only had seven points, but she dished out seven assists and pulled down seven rebounds.

With Rajan and her Huskies teammates not looking anything like a No. 1 seed facing a No.16 seed, Fairmont Prep fell behind 18-12 after one quarter, and the deficit got to 21-12 to start the second.

The hosts still trailed 32-30 at the half, and despite taking its first lead of the game at 35-34 on a three-pointer by Priest with 5:50 left in the third, they still couldn’t shake Birmingham and trailed 38-35 with just under five minutes remaining in the third, but that’s when Rajan warmed up and the worm turned. When Rajan scored to make it 39-38 Fairmont Prep finally took the lead and never trailed from there. Rajan hit her first three-pointer at 4:02 of third as part of a 14-2 run in which she scored nine of the 14 points and the lead was 49-40. From that point on it was all Fairmont Prep as they extended the lead to 81-57 before Birmingham scored the final four points.

Birmingham (22-8) got a team-high 21 points from junior forward Zoee Mitchel, 12 points from junior Kamara Coleman and 10 points from junior Izzy Smith.

“I think the long layoff hurt us. We’re a big rhythm team,” said Fairmont Prep head coach Josh Lozano, whose team had not played a game since a February 22 CIF Southern Section Open pool play win over Windward. “When we play games on consecutive days or every two to three days we do better when we’re in rhythm.”

“For Adyra it was her first state game ever and she was a little excited,” Lozano continued. “We had a big crowd come out and everyone was trigger happy, but once we got back into our rhythm we were okay.”

Fairmont Prep will need to be in rhythm when they host defending CIF Division II state champion Harvard-Westlake on Thursday.

“We need to focus on what we do, and we’ll be all right,” said Lozano about facing Harvard-Westlake.