Mission Prep girls basketball team’s deep run at state playoffs ends

The Mission Prep girls basketball program was making its 15th appearance in the Division V Southern California Regional championship game Saturday at Colony High in Ontario.

The Village Christian girls basketball program was making its inaugural trip to the game that determines which team advances to the state championship in Sacramento next week.

Village Christian dominated from start to finish in an easy 58-33 victory.

So much for history and experience.

“They outplayed us by a lot,” Mission Prep coach Andrew Richardson said. “The momentum stayed on their side. We couldn’t change it.”

No Mission Prep player scored in double figures and the team only made one field goal in the opening eight minutes and none in the third quarter.

Noelle Laird and Wheaton College-bound Jacqueline San Jule led Mission Prep with nine and eight points, respectively.

“We definitely weren’t ready on defense,” San Jule said. “They outplayed us all game. We didn’t play our game. Village shut us down with their zone defense. We have had trouble with that all year.”

Village Christian, which lost to Flintridge Prep a round earlier than Mission Prep did in the Southern Section championship game, jumped out to a 14-2 lead behind Leslie Aguilar and never looked back.

Freshman Meranie McGuire made a 3-pointer to give Village Christian a 26-12 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half and Micaela Cacho-Negrete’s 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining put the Crusaders (26-8) ahead 31-14 at halftime.

Things didn’t get any better in the second half.

Village Christian used a 13-0 run at the outset of the third quarter to end any thoughts of a Mission Prep comeback.

“We never got into a groove,” San Jule said. “Our shots were not falling at all.”

Cacho-Negrete, a 5-foot-9 sophomore, scored 25 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had three assists to lead Village Christian.

Mercy Odima, a 5-foot-11 junior transfer from Kenya, scored 11 points and had 13 rebounds.

Aguilar finished with 11 points.

“The girls executed the game plan to a ‘T’,” Village Christian coach Jon Sampang said. “They really bought in this week at practice.”

Emily Lucier scored four points, Michel Berber made a 3-pointer and Mia Gonzalez made three free throws for Mission Prep.

A two-point first quarter and three-point third quarter doomed Mission Prep, which shot a paltry 12 of 55 from the field. Village Christian nearly made half of its shots going 24 of 51 from the field.

Mission Prep was 1 of 17 from three-point range and only made eight of 20 free throws.

“I’m still trying to figure out what happened,” Richardson said. “We obviously didn’t expect to be down by 35 points ever.”

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Mission Prep girls basketball team’s deep run at state playoffs ends."