Another blow out, reach finals
By JON HABER Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN The Crossroads girls’ basketball team blew out its third-straight playoff opponent last Friday to advance to the Division V A CIF-SS Championship at the Long Beach Pyramid.
The No. 1-seeded Delphic League champion Roadrunners (19-7) will take on No. the 3-seeded Sierra Canyon Trailblazers of Chatsworth (22-4) in a Delphic League showdown. Crossroads has already defeated its league rival twice this season — 55-50 in Chatsworth and 61-53 in Santa Monica. Head coach Kevin Cormier knows the key to this game, as it was in the previous two victories, will be defense.
“We’ve done it all year. We have to defend [Sierra Canyon] really well and take them out of what they like to do,” he said. “They like to run, so we’re going to have to limit them to one shot and be real patient on offense.”
One big advantage the Roadrunners have over the Trailblazers is their size down in the post.
“We could dominate the inside, and we have to do that to win the game,” Cormier said.
The Roadrunners have been clicking on all cylinders since the playoffs began. They defeated their first two opponents — Noli Indian of San Jacinto and Sacred Heart of Jesus of Los Angeles — by a combined 103-points.
Crossroads used a stellar second half to bury Los Angeles Baptist of North Hills 47-26 in the team’s semifinals matchup last Saturday.
“We were up 19-11 at the half, but they were making us play their game,” Cormier said. “In the second half, we got our running game going and we got to them a little bit.”
The Roadrunner’s eighth-straight victory gives the team plenty of momentum heading into the biggest game of the season.
The championship game is set to be played either Friday or Saturday. CIF officials will announce the date and time of the matchup Wednesday.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.