TORRANCE\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s CIF-Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinal game between the Torrance and Godinez girls basketball team encapsulated the Tartars\u2019 season.<\/p>\n
Torrance fell into a 9-0 hole early, battled back to take its lone lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter before falling to Godinez 48-46.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a roller coaster and we played some really good competition,\u201d Torrance coach Bob Varnell said. \u201cWe had to play tougher teams to get us ready for teams like (Godinez).\u201d<\/p>\n
Godinez (16-11) will host Bishop Diego in Saturday\u2019s semifinal round.<\/p>\n
Varnell called it a mixture of nerves and pressure that kept Torrance (17-14) off the scoreboard until the final minute of the opening quarter. By that time, Godinez had jumped out to an early nine-point advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little bit of all that,\u201d Varnell said. \u201cNerves coming out knowing this was a big game for all of us, in front of a big crowd for a girls basketball game, the pressure affected us in the beginning and we had to get settled in. Once we got settled in, we took care of the next three quarters. It\u2019s just that first (quarter) bit us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaya Choi (15 points) converted one of two free throws with 53.4 seconds left in the opening quarter to put Torrance on the board before Nadia Suarez\u2019s jumper with four seconds left made it a 9-3 game.<\/p>\n
Torrance cut its deficit to 12-10 after Keala Akiyama hit one of two free throws before the roller coaster continued. Godinez went on a 7-0 run to jump out to a 19-10 lead with 2:31 to play in the first half.\u00a0Torrance closed the half on a 7-3 run, including Sakurako Nakagawa\u2019s and a Suarez 3-pointer to make it 22-18 at halftime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to remember to keep shooting, even though our shots weren\u2019t falling,\u201d Choi said. \u201cBasketball\u2019s a game that\u2019s constantly changing, so we had to remember if we keep shooting our shots will eventually fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Godinez led 28-22 with 6:11 left in the third before Torrance battled back once again. Suarez (16 points) hit another 3-pointer before Choi\u2019s layup made it a 28-28 game with 4:23 remaining in the third.<\/p>\n
Later, a Nagakawa 3-pointer made it a 38-38 game with 5:29 to play in the fourth before Suarez\u2019s 3-pointer gave Torrance a 41-40 lead with 4:41 to play. Nagakawa finished with nine points.<\/p>\n
Torrance went 5-for-23 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just needed to play as a team,\u201d Suarez said. \u201cOnce we started to move the ball more, we got open shots. That helped us a lot toward the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it had early in the game, Godinez controlled the pace down the stretch. Julissa Mota hit an inside shot with 2:36 to play to give the Grizzlies a one-point lead before Valerie Esteban\u2019s layup with 42.8 seconds remaining made it a 44-41 game. Esteban finished with 12 points. Crystal Cruz added 11 points and Valeria Arcos had nine.<\/p>\n
Down the stretch, Godinez went 4-for-8 from the free throw line, building a 47-41 lead with 18.1 seconds to play.<\/p>\n
Prior to Wednesday\u2019s meeting, Godinez coach AJ Alana studied the game film from the Dec. 10 meeting with Torrance \u2013 a 39-33 Tartar victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom playing them the first time, (Torrance) forced 29 turnovers,\u201d Alana said. \u201dWe went back and looked at the film and said if we cut down those turnovers at least by half, take care of the ball and handle their pressure, take set shots, attack the basket and get them in foul trouble, we\u2019ll be in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORRANCE\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s CIF-Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinal game between the Torrance and Godinez girls basketball team encapsulated the Tartars\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,3255,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-611435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-high-school-sports","10":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116096921981026193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}