The Valley Chronicle - Lady Tigers juice the Hawksng

SJHS Girls Basketball put the squeeze on Citrus Hill last Thursday, 74 - 11

[caption id="attachment_8894" align="alignright" width="576"] Photo by Corey Evan / The Valley Chronicle
Tiger Reina Celaya sinks one for San Jacinto. The Tigers squeezed Citrus Hill 74-11 last Thursday.[/caption] ■ By Corey Evan / Reporter The end of the season really does put a squeeze on young basketball players, especially as CIF playoffs loom. The Lady Tigers of San Jacinto High School sure felt the squeeze when they visited Citrus Hill to play the Hawks on Thursday, Feb. 1. That was, until the game started. The Lady Tigers picked up 21 points in the first period, while the only thing the Hawks picked up for most of the period were fouls. Three, to be exact. Citrus Hill did manage a 3-pointer, but it would take more than that to make a dent in the Tigers’ winning ways. Unfortunately for the Hawks, San Jacinto squeezed another 17 points out of them in period two. After one half, Citrus Hill would have just 7 points. They had everything to play for in the second half! But their comeback strategy failed to materialize in period three, as they only managed 2 more points. The Tigers were up 26 points. The final period came in and went out before one could realize what was going on. The Hawks squeezed in 2 more points while the Tigers got 10. Having been defeated 74-11, Citrus Hill were out of juice for the night. Freshman Sydney Woodley led the Tigers’ win, dropping in an astounding 33 points! Senior Iasia Bailey followed with 15 points, and Aleighna Mejia dropped in nine to round out the top three. That’s something Coach Larry Lacy can drink to. “We wanted to work on things for playoffs the next couple of games,” said Lacy. “The whole team played well; they moved the ball very well, they anticipated [passes] not too bad. We’ve gotta clean up our missed layups, then we’ll be OK.” This win pushes the Lady Tigers’ season record to an impressive 7-1 in the Mountain Pass League, 18-6 overall! Lacy confirms his small but deadly Tiger pack will be in the playoffs, which we here at The Valley Chronicle will follow up on in a future report. Tonight, the Tigers will try to finish the season on a high note, as the Lady Cougars of Beaumont take to the Tiger Gym. With league championships hinging on this game, it’s about to be a catfight!