It had been more than two decades since the Dos Pueblos high girls’ basketball team defeated Ventura, but the historic drought made the Chargers’ breakthrough victory on Tuesday night that much sweeter.
Dos Pueblos senior Justine Katz poured in 24 points as the Chargers captured a 75-74 overtime victory against the visiting Cougars in the Channel League opener for both teams.
“This game has been anticipated since the last game of our season last year. That was the last team that beat us and that ended our year,” said Dos Pueblos coach Manny Murrillo. “We put up the picture in our locker room that Ventura took on our home court after they beat us. We put it in our locker room for our kids to remember what happened to us in the last game of the season. That way we could start out this season in a different way and they responded.”
Dos Pueblos is accustomed to getting off to fast starts this season, but that did not happen against Ventura. The Cougars took a 7-2 lead midway through the first quarter on a driving floater by Kai Staniland.
A three-pointer by freshman Eden Wynne as the first quarter buzzer sounded cut the Dos Pueblos deficit to 19-14. Carly Letendre followed with a three-pointer from the top of the key to open the second quarter scoring, which forced a Ventura timeout.
The two teams went back and forth in the second quarter until a three-pointer by Emily Rea gave Ventura a 40-33 lead going into halftime.
Dos Pueblos played to a stalemate in the third quarter with each team scoring 12 points. But Dos Pueblos picked up their play at the outset of the fourth quarter. Katz was a central figure in the Chargers’ fourth quarter surge. She scored nine points in the period, while relentlessly attacking the paint.
“From the start we wanted to win so badly. I think just playing through everything and sticking to what we know helped us pull it off,” Katz said. “We just know that this year we’re going to be a really good team so we want to go far in the league, do our best and see what teams we can beat.”
A basket by Katz inside with just over four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 57-53 and sparked a 7-0 Dos Pueblos run. Letendre followed with a transition layup and Taylor Grant knocked down a three-pointer with three minutes remaining that gave the Chargers their first lead of the second half, 58-57.
A three-pointer by Katz with 1:42 remaining increased the Dos Pueblos lead to 61-57, but Ventura closed the fourth quarter strong as a steal and layup by Skyler Knight with 32 seconds remaining followed by a basket inside by Jessie Sebek with just over one second remaining sent the game into overtime.
In the overtime a three-pointer by Knight gave Ventura a 66-63 lead with 2:45 remaining, but Dos Pueblos rescinded with a 5-0 run capped off by a Lia Papador three-pointer that put the Chargers ahead 68-66.
A three-pointer by Letendre increased the Dos Pueblos lead to 72-68 with 1:10 remaining, but Kaiya Cooke responded with a three-pointer with just under a minute remaining that trimmed the Ventura deficit to 73-71.
Katz broke free from the Ventura press for a layup to increase the Dos Pueblos deficit to 75-71 with 30 seconds left, but Staniland came through for Ventura with a clutch three-pointer to make the score 75-74 with 23 seconds remaining.
Dos Pueblos was able to play keep away to close out the game and Ventura failed to foul to extend the game.
Dos Pueblos officials believe that this is the first victory over Ventura since the 1998-99 season, but that could not be confirmed.
Letendre and Grant both chipped in 13 points to supplement the big scoring night from Katz. Wynne added 12 points. Letendre is a sophomore. Grant and Wynne are both freshmen. Dos Pueblos improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in Channel league play with the victory.