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February 11, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Half of the area’s eight girls basketball teams have advanced to the CIF-Southern Section divisional playoffs and of those, La Mirada High and Whitney High won their respective leagues. While the former is banking on another long run through the playoffs like the one it had last season, advancing to the Division 5AA semifinals and winning a pair of Division 5 state playoff games, Whitney is looking to get past the first round for just the second time since 2020 when the Wildcats reached the quarterfinals for the second straight season.
All first round games are on Thursday, Feb. 13 and all second round games are on Saturday, Feb. 15.
DIVISION 3A
# 24 Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (13-10 overall, 6-2 in the Independence League) @ # 9 Gahr High (15-10, 3-5 in the Gateway League)-Gahr is in the postseason as an at-large representative after tying Downey High for third place in the Gateway League. However, Gahr fell to Downey 64-56 in double overtime in the last game of the regular season and split the season series with the Vikings. The Gladiators have been moving up the division ranks over the past few seasons. Two seasons ago, when they advanced to the divisional finals, they were in Division 5AA, and last season, they were bumped up to Division 4AA. Now, it’s Division 3A.
“With the new system…last Monday, we were in Division 2 and after the loss to Downey, we ended up going 3A,” said Gahr head coach Alfred Howard. “I’m assuming had we beat Downey we might have been up there in 3AA. So, I’m happy with 3A.”
The Gladiators lost their first two games of the season, before winning 10 of their next 13 games entering the 2025 calendar year. Gahr has not scored 60 points in its last 10 contests after getting to that point four times in December.
Only 10 players are on the team, but Howard has used a solid starting lineup all season long, which includes three seniors, two sophomores and one junior. Senior Christine Ho began the season as a starter, missed the last tournament in December and has rejoined the starting lineup. Senior Simar Sogi has also been a starter at times and is the top player coming off the bench with senior Karen Barrocan not far behind.
“We bring those two off the bench; they have kind of been in a slump but any one of them can get going at any time,” said Howard. “We really need them to kind of lock in and be focused on this last run that they have being seniors.”
YULA tied Holy Martyrs High for the top spot in the Independence League, a game ahead of third place Pacifica Christian High/Santa Monica. At one point, the Panthers won five in a row and nine of 11 but enters the playoffs with two straight losses. Gahr’s longest winning streak was five games from Dec. 12-27.
“I don’t know much about them now…but usually those private schools play hard,” said Howard. “They’ve played some good competition in Santa Monica and a couple of other teams that I saw on their schedule. So I know they’re going to be good.”
A potential quarterfinal game would be Gahr against top-seeded Lawndale High, whom the Gladiators edged 51-50 on Jan. 3.
Projected starters: Senior Jody Colbert, junior Chloe Beard, sophomores Rachel Fredenburg and Ella Mims and Ho.
The winner plays either #8 Loma Linda Academy or #25 Shalhevet High in the second round.
#19 Bishop Amat High (16-12, 7-5 in the Camino Real League) @ #14 Whitney (20-8, 9-1 in the 605 League)-For the first time since the 2018-2019 season, Whitney won at least 20 games in the regular season. The next season, head coach Myron Jacobs took over the reigns of the program and reached the quarterfinals, but since then, the Wildcats have reached the second round once. This season could be different as Whitney has a talented team built to at least reach the finals.
“I think we have a perfect chance to win a CIF ship,” said Jacobs. “We’re playing some solid teams, but I think these are teams who are beatable.”
Jacobs believes his side of the bracket is better than the other half and he’s not alone with that assessment. Other coaches, including Howard, have said the same thing.
Whitney played one of the program’s toughest schedules ever, going to the Central Valley and to the Pacific Northwest for a pair of three-game tournaments, going a combined 3-3 in those games including a one-point loss to Kamiak (WA) High. Whitney also lost to Lakewood High by eight points in the third game of the season, Rancho Cucamonga High by three points four days later, Long Beach Poly High by three points and Pioneer High by eight points. Jacobs said the loss to Pioneer on Jan. 31 helped Whitney get situated in Division 3A because just weeks earlier, it was ranked higher.
“I don’t think anybody can prepare to be where they’re at because we didn’t know how the rankings were going to be this year,” said Jacobs. “I just think I did my schedule the best to my talent. I think we played some solid teams, and I think we played some okay teams, and that was basically safety measures because you don’t want to get anyone hurt.”
Senior Haylie Wang is the leader of the team but is complemented well with fellow starters senior Rachel Moyher and sophomore Allysa So. Look for senior Keira Kato, junior Tina Namaranian and sophomore Keila Kurihara to provide some spark off the bench.
Whitney played Bishop Amat last season and came out on top, 68-31. But the Lancers, who lost five seniors last season, return five players. Jacobs said for the Wildcats to make a deep run, they need to be consistent, take care of the ball and stop being so passive, adding more players need to score.
Projected starters: Senior Allie Yamaguchi, sophomore Cheyanne Cheung, Moyher, So and Wang. However, it may change based on matchups.
The winner plays either #3 La Serna High or #30 Foothill High in the second round.
DIVISION 3AA
#30 Cerritos High (13-15, 7-3 in the 605 League) @ #3 Lancaster High (21-5, 11-3 in the Golden League)-After falling to Oak Park High in last season’s Division 3AA championship game, Cerritos finds itself in the same division, but this time will open the postseason against the third-ranked team. The Dons finished in third place in a top-heavy 605 League and had a roller coaster of a season. Head coach Marcus Chinen has had to alter his starting lineup just about every game because of injuries, illness or waiting until junior Mady Macaraeg, a transfer from Whitney, became eligible. In fact, 10 players missed a combined 54 games for a variety of reasons.
“I think it will be good for our girls,” said Chinen of the bracket. “I think we’ve prepped ourselves during the preseason. Not only that, throughout the season, with injuries, illness and whatnot, we’ve had to shuffle our lineups a lot. So, I think we have more girls prepared this year, from our starters to those coming off the bench more than we have ever been.”
Chinen added that this season has been challenging because he didn’t know he was going to miss a potential starter the next game for whatever reason. A lot of times, he would replace an everyday starter with someone who could go both offensively and defensively.
The one starter who did not miss a game is senior Ambar Multani, who leads the team in scoring by nearly 100 points over the next player. Had Macaraeg played the entire season instead of sitting out the first 12 games, she clearly would be the leading scorer. No matter who is on the court at the opening tip-off, this is a solid team with junior Cameron Lacorte complementing Macaraeg and Multani in the scoring department. After that, Chinen has several options he can go to for the other two starting spots-seniors Lauren Sakamoto, Miya Scammahorn, Megan Wallace and Sophie Watanabe and sophomores Kalana Nguyen and Jordin Pulley. Those six players have started at least five games and in fact, all 14 players have started at least once.
After winning the first two games of the regular season, Cerritos went into a slump, losing 14 of the next 17 games, including the first two league games. Of those 14 losses, four were by six points or fewer.
Lancaster finished in third place in the Golden League and began the season with 11 straight wins before falling to second place Highland High.
“At the end of the day, we have to do our job offensively and defensively,” said Chinen. “I would probably say defensively first, then the offense will come. But if we play our game, then hopefully we’ll be able to pull a home game. If we can, that’s great, but if not, then we’ll be on the road [again] and hopefully fight for another game to get a home game.
Projected starters: Lacorte, Macaraeg, Multani, Nguyen and Scammahorn
The winner plays either #14 California High or #19 Beaumont High in the second round.
DIVISION 4A
#25 Orange High (14-10, 4-4 in the Grove League) @ #8 La Mirada (16-10, 9-1 in the Mid-Cities League-After falling a basket short of playing for a Division 5AA championship last season, La Mirada moved up a notch and is prepared to go one step farther this season. While the Mid-Cities League champions didn’t have quite as good of a record as last season, the group of eight returning players plus two varsity rookies is more well-rounded.
“Whatever we were handed, I was going to take it with a grain of salt and kind of take it game by game,” said La Mirada head coach Victoria Luong of the bracket. “I think the first thing the girls noticed was Colton is also in Division 4A. But the definite warning; that revenge of last year against Colton…I told the girls we have to take it one game at a time and get there first.”
If there is to be a rematch, it wouldn’t come until the semifinals, and Colton is seeded 20th. And, if the Matadores are to do any damage in the playoffs, this is as good as it will ever get as nine of the 10 players are seniors. The lone underclassman is sophomore Jordin Shaw, the team’s second-leading scorer with 306 points. Joining her in the starting lineup are leading scorer Jael Arreguin, Destiny Elmore, Emily Gonzalez and Hailey Medrano. The top two bench players throughout the season have been Simran Sahota and Nayeli Tamayo, both of whom have combined to score 108 points. One improvement has been in the rebounding department, where Gonzalez and Medrano have joined forces with Elmore, who was the go-to rebounder last season.
“Nayeli, in the last couple of games, at least defensively, has improved and really stepped up; being more aggressive and knows what she needs to do,” said Luong. “And even with Simran, making some key plays, we need them as far as defensively. I think towards the end of the season, they’ve actually stepped up and played better than they had at the beginning of the season.”
The key strength for the Matadores is fluidity as most of the seniors have been playing together for three or four seasons. Luong insisted that because of that, the team needs to get off to a strong start to the game.
“They just need to show up,” she added. “I need their ‘A’ game; I need them to be on point from the get-go and start off strong and not get off to a weak start.
La Mirada’s lone league loss was to Warren High by four points on Jan. 10 and since then, the Matadores have won seven of eight games. Meanwhile, Orange finished in third place in the Grove League and has won three straight games three different times and in the last 10 games, the Panthers are 5-5.
La Mirada and Orange have played four common opponents in Bellflower High, Costa Mesa High, Fullerton High and Pacifica High with the Matadores going 5-0 against them, including a five-point win over Pacifica in the season-opener and a two-point win over Costa Mesa four games later. The Panthers defeated Bellflower and Pacifica, lost to Costa Mesa and split with Fullerton. The victories against Fullerton and Pacifica were by a combined three points.
Projected starters: Arreguin, Elmore, Gonzalez, Medrano and Shaw
The winner plays either #9 Mayfield High or #24 San Marino High in the second round.
