Blog: Agoura Will Host El Dorado in the Second Round of the State Playoffs on Saturday Night

The Agoura girls’ basketball team easily won its first-round state playoff game against Sierra High, of Tollhouse, on Wednesday night.

The Chargers built a 35-4 lead after one quarter as Kim Jacobs scored 16 of her game-high 24 points, including four 3-point field goals.

Agoura, now 22-11 on the season, will host El Dorado in the second round on Saturday night at 7 p.m. If you haven’t seen the Chargers play yet this year, now is a good time to get a glimpse of the team that won its first-ever CIF championship on Feb. 27.

Jacobs starred in the CIF title game – a 60-39 win over Gahr, the No. 1 seeded team in Division 3AAA, while Agoura was seeded No. 15. She scored 30 in that game and like Wednesday’s win over Sierra, knocked down six 3-point shots.

But Jacobs has had a lot of help on the well-rounded Chargers team that has come into its own since becoming healthy towards the end of the regular season.

“My guards are exceptional,” first-year coach Conley Oliver said. “Noam Leead has had such a rough season, being injured most of it. But she’s been able to step in late in the season after missing six weeks.

“She basically won the game against Calabasas (Jan. 24) and has been so consistent in the playoffs. She’s able to handle the pressure and bring the ball up court even though she’s still in a tremendous amount of pain.”

When Agoura takes on El Dorado, of Placentia, which beat Our Lady of Peace in its first round state playoff game Wednesday, Oliver hopes to get a performance from junior forward Gigi Olelewe that is similar to the one she had the first time the two teams met.

“Gigi has been huge,” Oliver said. “We’re not giants, we’re not a big, big team. But she had 16 (points) and 21 (rebounds, against El Dorado) and has just been big defensively and on the boards.”

At 6-feet tall, Olelewe is the tallest starter for Agoura. Her frontcourt mate Sydney Bennett, a 5-11 senior forward, has also earned the praise of the Agoura coach.

“Sydney Bennett has stepped up,” he said. “She hurt her ankle after the first playoff game (a 62-41 win over Beaumont on Feb. 14) and we thought she might be done for the rest of the season. But she bounced back and had two tremendous games against El Dorado and Gahr.”

The injuries seemed to pile up all year, but Oliver said his players never got demoralized.

“It’s a tribute to most of my kids for how well they’ve endured injuries over the season,” he said.

An unsung player for Agoura has been Brittany Mazal, a junior guard.

Mazal had five steals in the state playoff game against Sierra and three of them came early on as the Chargers built the huge first-quarter lead.

“Brittany is a softball player whose coach would rather have her playing softball right now,” Oliver said. “She’s just so instrumental (to our success). She’s a great athlete and competitor and she just brings the heart and energy that we need every day.”

Oliver said Mazal and Bennett are team-leaders in terms of the enthusiasm that they bring to each practice.

Wanting to play and contributing in any way possible

Jesse Thompson has added a key ingredient off the bench as has fellow senior Natalie Bradley.

“We’ve actually battled all season on (the amount of her) playing time and just her wanting to contribute,” Oliver said of Thompson. “Being a senior and wanting to make this special for her, she’s been stubborn about wanting to play.

“The last two months (Thompson) has been huge off the bench. She’s willing to do whatever it takes. She’s one of our vocal people that come in off the bench.”

Bradley’s playing time increased when Leead was injured.

“Natalie basically played the back up point guard spot while Noam was out,” Oliver said. “She’s gritty defensively and gets a lot of scrappy rebounds.”

While nine of the 12 members of the Chargers active roster are either juniors or seniors, Agoura has two sophomores – Emma Friedl and Abbe Boyle – and one freshman, Kailey Bennett, the younger sister of Sydney.

“Emma Friedl has played big minutes at big times, and she didn’t let the (tough) moments of the playoffs affect her mentally,” Oliver said. “She has been able to focus on what she needed to do and has done a great job.”

Seniors Megan Kolakowski and Colleen Cullen have also added the necessary depth to fill in when the injuries mounted and to make sure practices were as competitive as possible.

The El Dorado showdown promises to be a memorable game. El Dorado had a chance to defeat Agoura in the CIF semifinals but missed two free throws with two seconds left in regulation. The Chargers seized upon the opportunity and won in overtime, 41-36.

“We went there and it was crazy,” Oliver said. “The crowd was nuts and we had to play our best game of the season that night.”

The senior, Bennett, has said that anything the Chargers accomplish in the state playoffs is “icing on the cake.” And there is a formidable lineup of teams in Agoura’s division – not just El Dorado – which weren’t there as roadblocks in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.

Alemany, a team that beat Calabasas by 28 points in the CIF-Southern Section Divison 3AA finals, is in the same bracket as Agoura (the Coyotes won their first round game, 67-63 against Selma and have to face Alemany again, in Mission Hills, Saturday night).

Chaminade is also in Agoura's bracket and if the Chargers defeat El Dorado, they would likely face Chaminade (28-3) in the regional semifinals.

But Oliver is primed to continue on.

“I’m kind of greedy,” he said. “We’ve accomplished a lot this year, from where we started and ended – the up and down rollercoaster. For me it’s special, but I always look at it from the girls (standpoint) and what the school is all about.

“You don’t get these opportunities very often. Having seniors that wanted something at the end of their careers and being able to give them that was huge.”