Girls Basketball: Julia Macabuhay Scores Career High 37 in La Salle’s 68-61 Victory at Flintridge Prep; Lancers in First CIF Semifinal in School History

By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Julia Macabuhay picked a great night to establish a new career high in scoring. The junior guard was huge, especially late, and finished with 37 points. La Salle outscored the Rebels 46-30 in the second half, and claimed a 68-61 victory in the CIF-SS Division 3-A quarterfinals. It’s the first […]

By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor

Julia Macabuhay picked a great night to establish a new career high in scoring.

The junior guard was huge, especially late, and finished with 37 points.

La Salle outscored the Rebels 46-30 in the second half, and claimed a 68-61 victory in the CIF-SS Division 3-A quarterfinals.

It’s the first time the girls program has ever made a semifinal appearance.

La Salle (22-9) will play Lancaster (23-5), and a coin flip Thursday morning will determine the host school.

The Eagles beat Moorpark, 50-42, in their quarterfinal contest Wednesday.

“Julia has been going off all year, and we count on her a lot,” La Salle coach Freedom McCullough said. “But we got huge efforts from Alyssa Arroyo and Grace Fallar, who did a lot of the dirty work it takes to win playoff games.”

Arroyo finished with 15 points and Fallar had 9.

Kaitlyn Chen led Prep (24-3) with 20 points, Renae Tamura had 18 and Taylor Yoshida added 14 for the Prep League’s undefeated champs.

“I embrace the challenge to take and make big shots in big games,” Macbuhay said. “I will do anything I’m asked of to help this team win games.”

Prep’s season ended a tad earlier than many expected and that the Rebels’ would have preferred, but winning 90-percent of their games can’t be forgotten.

Prep Co-Head Coach Jayme Kiyomura-Chan:

“Unfortunately, early defensive and offensive fouls for senior captain’s Renae and Taylor took us out of our normal style of play on both ends of the court, and it had a huge impact on our ability to defend gaps and drive to the basket.
We’re very proud of this team. They accepted every challenge presented to them with poise and confidence, including being moved up from Div 5AA to Div 3A in just 2 short years. Goal setting and visualization is a big part of what we do in our program. Our goals were no more than two pre-season losses, undefeated league champions, and an Elite Eight CIF appearance, all of which the achieved.

We’re going to miss our “big three” so much. Natalie Benn, Renae Tamura, and Taylor Yoshida are all 4-year varsity players, and with that comes an immense amount of cohesiveness, experience, and leadership.”

La Salle scoring: Julia Macabuhay 37, Alyssa Arroyo 15, Grace Fallas 9, Nicole Ortiz 5, Gil So 3, Katie Perez 2.

Flintridge Prep scoring: Kaitlyn Chen 20, Renae Tamura 18, Taylor Yoshida 14, Andie Kim 5, Madison Manning 2.

Box Score:
La Salle: 15-7-24-22-(68)
Prep: 12-19-16-14-(61)

 

 

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