Mission Prep girls basketball holds off Bellarmine-Jefferson to advance to SoCal finals
Leading by 17 points in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s CIF regional semifinal against No. 6 seed Bellarmine-Jefferson (Burbank), the No. 2 seed Mission Prep girls basketball team relaxed. Then, Bellarmine-Jefferson went on a 14-5 run.
“We were thinking too far ahead to state, and we should have been thinking of that moment,” junior Jennifer “Boo” Laird said after the game.
The Royals refocused, and Laird’s layup with four minutes to play put Mission Prep (24-9) up by 10 points and pushed the team past the Guards and into the CIF Division 5 Southern California final with a 45-35 win in the final home game of the season.
“I think it was important for me to bark at them a little bit in that moment,” Mission Prep coach Andrew Richardson said. “ ‘Alright, we have a quarter to play. Let’s keep pushing the ball, keep attacking.’ ”
Mission Prep was able to keep up a relentless attack thanks to a swarming defense that forced 20 steals. Larid has seven swipes to go along with eight points, five assists and six rebounds.
“She’s a stud, man,” Richardson said. “She’s our most balanced player, so I try to keep her on the floor as much as possible.”
But when Mission Prep played against Minarets in the first round of the state playoffs, Laird was benched for the first half for a violation of team rules after she missed practice to go on a recruiting trip for volleyball.
“I just learned to put my team first,” Laird said of the experience. “It was kind of frustrating just sitting there and watching my team have fun on the court, so it made me just come out there and play harder.”
In the semifinals, junior Ani Boncich had timely baskets when Jennifer’s sister, Noelle Laird, got in foul trouble and finished the game with eight points and 11 rebounds for Mission Prep.
“She is not one of the ball handlers or the people up top, so sometimes people overlook her. But I would say she is one of the most solid players on the team,” Jennifer Laird said of Boncich.
Jenna Lee led a balanced Royals scoring attack with nine points.
Mission Prep will travel to Ontario on Friday for a 10 a.m. game at Colony High School against Village Christian (No. 8 seed) on Saturday. The winner will play for a Division 5 state title in Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena next Thursday against the winner of the NorCal bracket.
This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Mission Prep girls basketball holds off Bellarmine-Jefferson to advance to SoCal finals."