The Los Alamitos High girls basketball team began Sunset League play this week and will host Huntington Beach High, in what should be a matchup between two good teams. The Griffins entered league play with a 9-5 record and the Oilers were 12-5 in their pre-league schedule.
The Griffins are looking for their fourth consecutive league title and are currently the highest ranked team in the Jan. 5 CIF-Southern Section rankings at No. 72. They will be led by their guard play. Most of their inside players are underclassmen, but the Griffins have a lot of experienced guards.
Seniors Maya Asumbrado and Tamlyn Yoshida anchor the guard corp and the team. Their younger sisters, sophomores Sydney Asumbrado and Torri Yoshida also add speed and shooting to the team. The Griffins will push that speed and they can certainly shoot the ball.
“Run, gun, execute – be everywhere on defense, get some steals and limit the rebounds as much as we can,” Head Coach Maya DeAnda said of the Griffins game plan. “But, you know, our execution, that’s our bread and butter right there.”
The plan worked well in a tournament game against Tesoro High, in which the Griffins wee able to outpace the Titans and pull away with a late surge in three pointers. Los Alamitos dropped their next two games before ending their pre-season with a 54-45 win over Cypress High.
With some of the younger players likely to be needed, DeAnda said she liked the way the team performed during much of the preseason.
“We’ve played some really tough teams, and I think this is helping us … we’re scrapping and fighting, we’re getting in there, doing the best we can and I think that’s building some character for league, because the league is really tough,” DeAnda said.
The Griffins host Huntington Beach tonight at 7 p.m. and will be at Marina High on Saturday for another 7 p.m. game.
