By Patrick J. Kennedy
The Los Alamitos girls basketball team won its fourth consecutive Sunset Conference championship on Saturday, January 31, by hitting a season-high 20 three-point baskets and blitzing Newport Harbor in an 80-48 title-clinching road victory.
The victory brought the Griffins’ Sunset League record to 10-1, two games ahead of Huntington Beach (8-3 in league) with only one contest remaining.
“It’s hard to win a league championship,” said Coach Maya De Anda. “I’m really proud of all the hard work that the girls have put in to make it happen.”
Leading the onslaught of threes was sharpshooting senior guard Maya Asumbrado with 8 three-pointers, tying her personal best. Senior guard Madison Norberg added 5 threes followed by sophomore guards Torri Yoshida with 3 threes and Maile Heng with 2 threes. Seniors Tam Yoshida and Lexi Kyriakos each added 1 three.
The fast-paced Griffins often rely on outside shooting, and against the much taller Newport Harbor Sailors, they let it rain all night, hitting at least 4 threes in every quarter.
The Sailors (8-16 overall) outrebounded the Griffins 36 to 21, but the Los Alamitos full-court press and trapping defense flustered Newport into 29 turnovers while the Griffins (19-7 overall) turned the ball over only 6 times. The unselfish Griffins also had 20 assists on 30 baskets.
Offensively, Asumbrado led the way with 24 points and 5 assists. Norberg added 15 points, followed by Heng with 12 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals. Torri Yoshida added 9 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals. Tam Yoshida and Kyriakos each added 7 points and freshman post Amber Cosio scored 6.
Last season, the Griffins were Sunset League co-champions with Fountain Valley and Corona del Mar, each with 9-3 league records. In 2023-24, the Sunset Conference had two four-team leagues, the lower-rated Wave League and the higher-rated Surf League, and in that 2023-24 season, the Griffins won the higher-rated Surf League title outright with a 6-0 record. In 2022-23, the Griffins shared the Surf League championship with Corona del Mar, each with 5-1 records.
In the four consecutive championship seasons under Coach De Anda, the Griffins have an overall combined record of 82-32 with a home-court record of 32-6.
“It’s been a fun run,” De Anda said. “League championships are part of the school’s history and it’s something the school community can be proud of, and we’re very happy to be a part of that.”
The Griffins have one more league game on the road to play against Edison (10-16) and then the first round of CIF playoffs will begin the following week on Thursday, February 12.
The CIF currently ranks the Griffins No. 53 in the Southern Section, which would put the team in a high and very competitive playoff division. The official CIF seedings will be released on Saturday, February 7, at noon.