PASADENA—The La Salle girls basketball team made the leap to Division 1 in the CIF Southern Section two seasons ago.
It didn’t take long for the Lancers to carry over the success they had in Divisions 2 and 3. But it hasn’t come easy.
La Salle erased a seven-point, third-quarter deficit to rally past a tough Villa Park team, 50-45, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
La Salle (27-4) will make its first appearance in the Division 1 semifinals when it faces Moreno Valley on the road Saturday. Moreno Valley defeated Orange Lutheran 63-41 on Wednesday.
Not only has La Salle advanced to the CIF-SS semifinals, it has also qualified for the CIF State playoffs that begin March 3.
“Every win in Division 1 is a good win,” said La Salle coach Scott Wiard. “Fortunately, we play in the Del Rey League so we’re used to winning a big game and coming back and having to play a really good team a couple of days later. Our schedule gets us ready for that.”
The Lancers survived thanks to the play of senior Casey Higgins, her sister Riley, who’s a junior, and sophomore Aislin Tamez-Torres. Casey Higgins scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Tamez-Torres scored 14 points and Riley Higgins added nine points. Her biggest play came with under 20 seconds left in the game with La Salle holding onto a 46-43 lead.
Villa Park senior Bailey Roczey got a pass behind the 3-point line. She dribbled and fired up a quick shot to try to tie the game. But Riley Higgins blocked it. The loose ball ended up in her sister’s hands. Casey Higgins was then fouled with 16 seconds left. She made both free throws and added two more with seven seconds left to seal the game.
“My defense is what got her and (Roczey) just tried to make a rushed shot and I was thinking I just need to block it or deflect it,” Riley Higgins said.
After that, it was up to big sister to finish the job.
“I was thinking I got to make these free throws to put us up more,” Casey said laughing. “(Villa Park) was just really good and being able to pull away at the end was really good for us.”
It looked like La Salle would pull away early. The Lancers used a swarming defense to force five first quarter turnovers on Villa Park as they raced out to a 16-6 lead after one period.
However, Villa Park (23-8) settled down and clamped down on La Salle defensively, forcing the Lancers into some tough shots. The Spartans rallied to tie the game at 19 with 3:05 left before half. Villa Park took a 24-22 lead when Roczey nailed a 3 from the top of the key. That was her third 3 of the quarter. She scored all 11 of her points in the second quarter. The Lancers tied it 24-24 at halftime thanks to a late layup by Tamez-Torres.
Villa Park grabbed the momentum in the third quarter and used a 6-0 run to take a 36-29 lead late in the period when Olivia Sturdivant hit a layup. That was Villa Park’s biggest lead.
La Salle didn’t panic.
“I think the main point was staying together as a team,” Tamez-Torres said. “We know as a team we’ve played many games. We never gave up. We just talked to each other and communicated. The bench was screaming and keeping our energy up.”
Tamez-Torres scored four straight points in the middle of the quarter to give La Salle a 41-40 lead. One of those was a putback off her own miss. The other was a layup on the left side.
Villa Park tied the game 43-43 with 1:49 left when senior Madelyn Martinez sank two free throws. La Salle regained the lead with 1:15 remaining when senior Julianne Tan made one of two free throws after being fouled on a rebound attempt by sophomore Lauren Wolfe.
Casey Higgins hit two free throws with 59 seconds left to give La Salle a 46-43 lead when Wolfe was called for a blocking foul as Higgins was driving to the basket.
Villa Park was led by Wolfe, who scored a team-high 12 points. She scored seven of her team’s nine fourth quarter points. Roczey contributed 11 and Sturdivant, the team’s leading scorer for the season, had nine points. However, she fouled out with 2:46 left in the game.
La Salle will aim for its first Division 1 championship appearance in school history. The Lancers under Wiard won the Division 3AA championship in 2022 and the 2AA championship in 2023.
“This group has really been special this year,” Wiard said. “It’s been a fun group to be around so I’m glad at the very least we get two more weeks with them.”
