GARDEN GROVE >> The Orangewood Academy girls basketball team had its strong run through the regional playoffs end Tuesday night with a 61-58 loss to Windward in the CIF SoCal Division I regional final at Orangewood Academy High.
Orangewood Academy (24-10) won the San Joaquin League championship and went 1-2 in pool play of the Southern Section Open Division Playoffs. The Spartans beat Mount Miguel, Granada Hills Charter and Bishop Montgomery in the regional playoffs to reach the championship game.
Windward (23-10) went 0-3 in pool play of the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs and beat St. Joseph and Bakersfield in the first two rounds of the regional playoffs. The Wildcats upset top-seeded Rosary in the semifinals in overtime to reach the title game.
The Wildcats will play Salesian College Prep on Friday in Sacramento for the Division I state championship.
With the exception of two runs by both teams in the third quarter, the game was largely within five points throughout.
Orangewood Academy trailed 59-58 with 26.8 seconds remaining in the game after Sofia Saldivar got an offensive rebound and put it back up for a layup while drawing a foul. She sank the free throw to give Windward the lead.
The Spartans fouled Princeton signee Skye Belker, who sank two free throws to make it a three-point game.
Washington signee Hannah Stines took a 3-point shot at the buzzer for Orangewood Academy but missed.
“Windward, their program speaks for itself,” Orangewood Academy coach Leslie Aragon said. “But I think if we played anywhere close to how we did Saturday (against Bishop Montgomery), the outcome is a little different.”
Windward’s defense was stout all day but Orangewood Academy had scoring chances. The Spartans shot 36 percent from 3-point range but had 16 turnovers.
“They denied the ball out of Hannah’s hands a lot,” Aragon said. “When we did get the ball with Hannah, we were able to get downhill and run our stuff. They did a good job of getting us off our spots.”
Stines had a game-high 20 points for Orangewood Academy. Junior Jayvionne Brown had 13 points with 12 rebounds. Brya Arroyo-Gillcrese made four 3-pointers and had 12 points.
Windward shot 50 percent from 3-point range. Samari Bankhead had 16 points for the Wildcats and Belker had 10 points with six assists. Maya Stokes had 13 points with three steals. She had nine points in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.
Like many teams this season, Orangewood Academy battled adversity due to COVID-19 and injuries. Stines was enrolled at Troy in the fall but she returned to Orangewood Academy when she was not cleared by CIF to compete at the varsity level.
“Everybody has a story with COVID, but we had girls coming back from injury and girls that were transferring and I feel we never really got into a rhythm this season until Saturday night,” Aragon said.
Tuesday was the second regional championship game appearance for Orangewood Academy. The Spartans fell to Mater Dei in a regional final in 2017.
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