After conquering the regular season, the Ocean League champion Culver City High girls basketball team will now go after a CIF championship.
Coach Julian Anderson’s team went undefeated in 10 league games, completing the schedule with a 66-30 victory over Beverly Hills. The Centaurs are 21-6 overall
The Centaurs were also 10-0 a year ago and came back with another stirring performance despite the graduation of 10 seniors.
Kelsey Ueda scored 17 points in a 54-34 win over Santa Monica and the Centaurs survived their greatest league test by edging Hawthorne, 33-31.
“We weren’t making our shots against Hawthorne and they played a good game,” said Ueda. “We’ll work hard in practice for the playoffs and eliminate the mistakes we’ve been making. I feel we can go a long way in the playoffs.”
“We’re ready for the playoffs,” said Anderson. “We’ll tighten up some things, make some adjustments and we’ll be ready to go.”
Culver City, ranked fourth in Division 2A, will have a first round playoff bye and will have a home game Saturday night at 7, opposing the winner of the first round game between Mayfair and Fullerton.
Anderson has recommended ice baths for the players.
“It rejuvenates the legs from the pounding all season,” he explained.
Guard Taylor Tanita said the ice baths will help refresh the team for the playoffs.
‘We’re excited about the opportunity in the playoffs and we want to go to state like we did last season,” she said.
The Culver boys completed a 6-19 season, which didn’t qualify them for the playoffs. In the last two games Culver defeated Hawthorne, 78-71 and lost to Beverly Hills, 50-38.
“We had the tempo fast, which we like against Hawthorne,” said Coach Adam Eskridge. “But we settled for three-point shots against Beverly Hills’ zone defense and we scored only 11 points in the second half.”
Rskridge completed his first season as head coach after he replaced Jon Chapman.
George Laase contributed to this article
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