Griffins' Push Edison, but Chargers Push Back

Los Alamitos High coach Chris Vlasic was pleased with his team’s effort and approach to their game against Huntington Beach Edison on Tuesday. Unfortunately, for the Griffins, their effort was still not enough to contain the top-ranked team in Division 1A of the CIF-Southern Section, as the Chargers jumped out to an early lead and rolled to a 68-43 Sunset League victory.

The Chargers got 23 points from senior Bonnie Samuelson and 15 points from junior Rilee Horton to improve to 4-0 in league play and 17-1 overall. The host Griffins were led by junior center Haley Gorman with 10 points, while junior point guard Keiko Nomura and senior guard Rachel Bass each added nine.

Vlasic said the coaches had told the team before the game that if they were going to be competitive with a team as strong as Edison, they had almost no margin for error. They told them that they would have to execute their offensive game plan perfectly and make sure they limited mistakes on defense.

But once the Chargers got their press going and their offense firing, the game got away from the Griffins quickly.

“We had too many turnovers and gave up too many offensive rebounds,” Vlasic said.

The Chargers jumped out to a 4-0 lead, which forced the Griffins to take an early timeout. Bass responded for the Griffins with a 3-pointer, but the Chargers rallied back to push the lead to 10-3. Gorman got deep for a lead pass to break the Chargers' press and cut the lead to 10-5.

Later, with the Chargers leading 13-6, junior guard Lauren Yamada made a steal and took the ball the length of the court for a layup to cut the lead to 13-8. But the Chargers would go on a run to take a 20-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Griffins would make a push in the second quarter with a 3-pointer by Bass and, later, a running bank shot in the key by Nomura. Yamada followed with a jump shot that cut the lead to 29-18.

But the each time the Griffins pushed, the Chargers pushed back. They finished the second quarter with a 13-2 run to take a 42-20 lead at halftime.

The Griffins opened the third quarter with a 9-5 run sparked by two inside baskets from Gorman and a 3-pointer by Nomura. But after a rebound and length of the court drive and score by Nomura, the Chargers would make another run to extend their lead.

Despite the loss, Vlasic said that he did see some encouraging things from his team. They had struggled to maintain their effort and intensity in their two most recent league games, but Vlasic saw no let down even with the lopsided score.

“Our effort was fantastic,” Vlasic said.

Yamada and Susanna Infante each chipped in four points. While the Griffins are off to an 0-4 start in league play, they are hopeful of turning things around in a game at Fountain Valley on Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Barons are 1-3 in league. The Griffins had close losses to Marina and Newport Harbor last week.