MVP AND TEAMMATES: From (l-r) senior Haylie Wang (tournament most valuable player), junior Tina Namiranian, senior Rachel Moyher and sophomore Alyssa So. The latter three were named to the all-tournament team and all four players combined to average 55 of the 65 points per game in the four-team tournament. Photo by Loren Kopff.
December 26, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
SAN PEDRO-Through the first 14 games of the season, the Whitney High girls basketball team has seen its share of good competition, bad competition and a little of both in between. But unlike previous seasons, head coach Myron Jacobs has had a slightly different approach to the season despite some opponents not as desirable as he would have liked based on the 11-player team he has.
No matter what the reason has been, or is, the Wildcats swept through the 3rd annual San Pedro Lady Pirate Shootout like it was nothing, breezing past Carson High 70-40 last Saturday night in the championship game. Whitney, not accustomed to playing teams from the CIF-Los Angeles City Section, faced the second of four teams from outside the Southern Section when they squared off against the Colts, and the game was over before the end of the opening quarter.
Going from the extremity of playing the caliber of a Lakewood High or a Rancho Cucamonga High in a span of five days in late November, then the Golden Valley Tournament in Merced from Dec. 5-7 to this tournament made Jacobs decide what his approach was going to be.
“Practice for Seattle, but most importantly, teaching the girls who are new to varsity,” he said. “You only get so much time with them, and these are the perfect games to teach at the same time you go. Everybody wants to go and jump into hard tournaments to get battle tested. But in reality, we don’t have that type of squad to go do that type of run. We would rather go somewhere where we can preserve players.”
He’s talking about a bigger challenge beginning Dec. 26 when Whitney will take part in the inaugural Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, just north of Seattle.
Sophomore Alyssa So had her opinion of facing the City Section teams, but made the most of this tournament by scoring close to 70 points in the four games. She took the first four shots of the game for her team and five of the first seven, connecting on three perimeter shots.
“I think that L.A. City Section [schools] are much more physical than what we’re used to,” said So. “That was something that we knew coming into this. That was something we had to pay attention to.”
Whitney forced Carson to turn the ball over 11 times in the quarter with senior Haylie Wang picking up four of her game-high 12 steals in the first eight minutes. One of those led to her last basket of the stanza and made the score 17-5 with 1:50 remaining. The Wildcats let up a bit in the second quarter, scoring only nine points but they were still in control with a 31-14 halftime lead.
Whitney grabbed 13 rebounds and forced another 11 turnovers in the second quarter as the Colts did not score consecutive points in the first half, and in fact, accomplished that feat three times in the game. One of the favorites to win the 605 League this season amped it up in the third quarter, scoring 19 points and for the third time, forcing 11 more turnovers. Wang was dominant again, scoring nine points in the stanza with four rebounds and a pair of steals.
“I’m a big believer in that you don’t have to play a Division 1 or a Division 2 team to compete and get better,” said Jacobs. “You just have to learn how to work on your system but use these types of tournaments to teach that and get them better.”
Wang, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 23 points, had a dozen rebounds, six steals and two assists while So added 20 points, four steals, three assists and a pair of rebounds. Also having solid games were senior Rachel Moyher (five rebounds, four steals), junior Tina Namaranian (nine points, three rebounds, two steals) and sophomore Keila Kurihara (10 points off the bench). Moyher, Namaranian and So were named to the all-tournament team.
“In the past, we’ve usually had about four girls who can play,” said Jacobs. “This year, the motto is to get everybody ready, and every night [in this tournament], someone else stepped up. Somebody is always going to be off. You’re not going to have one game where everybody is on it. Tonight, if you ask me, it was Keila who was on. Before that it was Haylie who was on [and] the day before that, it was probably Alyssa who was on.
“The components to this team winning is building more chemistry together and more playing time for the younger kids,” he continued. “But most importantly, doing the things that we need to do in a system that we need to run to flourish.”
“I think we did really well, especially because we were missing [sophomore] Cheyanne [Cheung],” said So. “She’s a big part of our defense and she really does all our dirty work with the rebounding and defending. It was really hard not having her, but I think we did a good job of filling the gap she left and won for her. No one thought we were going to win, but we didn’t let that deter us from trying our best and being really physical and not play like the underdogs that everyone thought we were.”
Cheung, who was penciled into the starting lineup at the beginning of the season, missed the last three games of the tournament and will not accompany the team to the Pacific Northwest.
The Wildcats blew out El Segundo High 70-32 last Wednesday as Wang erupted for 29 points and had seven rebounds while So scored 21 points. Coming off the bench was Namaranian and she responded with a career-high 13 points along with three rebounds and three steals. The Wildcats led 26-10 after the first quarter.
The next night, the ‘Cats feasted on Banning High in a 60-24 conquest with Wang pouring in a season-high 34 points and So adding 13 points. The best game of the tournament for Whitney came last Friday night when it turned a 21-20 halftime deficit to Serra High into a 59-44 victory.
“I think the Serra game is actually one of the games that stood out because it was more of a physical game, and it was a different type of style,” said Jacobs. “Playing in Orange County, then playing a L.A. City Section team, the game physicality is on a different level. I thought we handled it well, especially seeing that we went down [six] points and had to fight back.”
Whitney led most of the opening quarter until Kaicia Scranton’s three-pointer with 9.4 seconds left put the Cavaliers up 10-9. Later in the half, Serra went up by six points following a two-pointer and a three-pointer from Yve Young. But five free throws in the final 2:43 of the half closed the gap, then the Wildcats outscored Serra 25-12 before opening an 18-point advantage nearly midway through the fourth quarter on back to back buckets from So.
Having her best game in a Whitney uniform was Moyher, who pulled down 16 rebounds, scored a dozen points and had two steals. But Whitney has been, and figures to be paced the rest of the season by Wang, who scored 19 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and had six assists, and So, who pitched in with 15 points, three rebounds and two assists. They have been the top two scorers in every game thus far.
“I think it’s about trust,” said So. “If I’m not having a good game, I can rely on her to kind of get me back into the mindset that I need to be in. I can rely on her energy; she can rely on me. If she’s not having a good game, I’ll make sure to make sure she’s feeling good.”
Whitney will play host Kamiak, Everett High and Auburn Riverside High in the three-day tournament. Jacobs says he likes to travel before league play starts because he feels those should be the hardest games on the schedule. The three games in the Emerald City will be the hardest, besides a Jan. 11 game against Long Beach Poly High until the playoffs for the Wildcats.
“We’re still going to be missing Cheyanne in Seattle, so we know it will be a little harder,” said So. “But I think we can battle. I think we’re ready mentally after this tournament. I think we’ve proven we can fight with physical teams, taller teams and talented teams. I think we need to make sure we’re in the right mindset.”
