Dos Pueblos Girls Basketball Suffers 72-59 Loss to Cerritos in Second Round of Playoffs

A resurgent season for the Dos Pueblos high girls’ basketball team came to an end on Saturday night at Sovine Gym following a 72-59 loss to Cerritos in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 3AA playoffs.

The Chargers had no answer for Cerritos senior forward Onyekachi Nwanze, who dominated in the paint and finished with a game-high 29 points.

“We just didn’t have a matchup for her so we try to do the best we can to try and neutralize it,” said Dos Pueblos High coach Manny Murrillo of Nwanze’s presence around the rim. “I thought we could have executed our game plan better. We did everything we could to prepare.”

Dos Pueblos has relied heavily on elite three-point marksmanship all season, but could not conjure the necessary efficiency to keep pace with the visiting Dons. The Chargers shot 8-of-33 from behind the arch as a team.

Cerritos jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead on a basket by Nwanze with just under seven minutes remaining in the first quarter and continued to make headway inside throughout the period. 

An offensive rebound and put-back  by Nwanze as the first-quarter buzzer sounded have Cerritos a 23-15 lead. 

A basket inside plus the foul by Justine Katz cut the Dos Pueblos deficit to 27-21 with 5:21 remaining in the second quarter, but as was the case throughout the game Cerritos responded to the Dos Pueblos surge with a 6-2 run to take 33-23 with just over two minutes remaining in the first half.

Cerritos took a 35-27 lead into halftime and outscored Dos Pueblos 23-12 in the third quarter, extending its lead to 57-39 going into the fourth quarter.

“Shots did not fall as much for sure in the third quarter and that’s when we really went down,” Murrillo said. “When I saw the brackets and saw where we were at if there was one team that would give us trouble I knew that {Cerritos} was that team. Congrats to them they played a good game.”

Dos Pueblos made one final push midway through the fourth quarter. Trailing 67-44 the Chargers ripped off a 13-0 run capped off by a Lauren Robles three-pointer with 2:05 remaining in the game to cut the deficit to 67-57.

A driving layup by sophomore Carly Letendre with 1:20 remaining brought the Dos Pueblos deficit down to 67-59, but once again cerritos had an answer as Cameron Lacorte nailed a dagger three-pointer with 1:02 remaining that put the Dons ahead 70-59.

“I feel like if we would have played with more of that its do or die time from the beginning of the game I don’t even think it would have been a game,” Murrillo said of his team’s fourth quarter comeback. “Not to discredit what they did, but I feel like the energy that we had then if we would have brought that early I feel like we probably would have won the game.”

Senior Justine Katz and freshman Taylor Grant both finished with 13 points to lead Dos Pueblos.