Blog: Chargers Girls Basketball Loses in State Regional Semifinals, But Only After Historic Season

The Agoura girls basketball team finally lost a postseason game when Chaminade of West Hills defeated the Chargers, 65-53, in the Southern California regional semifinals on Wednesday night at Chaminade High School.

Of course, after the program’s first-ever CIF championship back on Feb. 27, the loss in the state playoffs couldn’t dampen what had been a historic season for the Chargers.

In the loss against Chaminade, junior guard Kim Jacobs scored 29 points. However, Agoura, which ends 24-12, had fallen too far behind in the first half and the 22 Jacobs scored in the second half wasn’t enough.

But Chaminade (30-3) is the 19^th – ranked team in the state according the MaxPreps, so the Eagles were expected to be a formidable foe, especially in their own gym.

Agoura had won eight straight games prior to the loss, seven of which had come in the postseason.

Last Saturday night the Chargers defeated El Dorado at home, 64-53, in the second round of the state playoffs. Jacobs again led Agoura with 22 points and junior forward Gigi Olelewe had 12.

Agoura may have benefited from playing in the Marmonte League, but it was the return of injured players at the right time that keyed the Chargers ability to make their playoff run. And their non-league schedule didn’t hurt either said Agoura coach Conley Oliver.

“We had some tough games in league and some tough losses,” he said. “But not only in league. Some of the games we played in the tournaments over the winter were great, too.

“We played Bonita (of La Verne). We played Buena (of Ventura) – just a lot of quality opponents to kind of grind our teeth on. We lost a lot of those games. We had to struggle and fight and we still came up short. That was hard on everybody.”

However, it made the Chargers stronger as a team to experience the tough losses.

“I think once we started winning, we knew we could win close games and it really made us a good team,” Oliver said. “We learned throughout the season and really in the playoffs, just to battle.

“We had tough shooting games a lot of times (but) our defense just kept getting better and better. We built up enough over the season to know we were going to win those close games.”

Noam Leead, a junior point guard, battled injuries all year but was clutch during the postseason. She said the Chargers wanted to prove in the playoffs that their fourth place finish in the Marmonte League was misleading due to all the injuries the team had.

“We said, ‘You know what? We’re going to step up and we’re going to play the way we want to play. We played for each other and did really well.”

Jacobs did all she could to lead the Chargers to the CIF title and the wins in the first two rounds of the state playoffs. She said she was pleased to see the Agoura seniors end their careers in a big way.

“I’m really excited for them,” Jacobs said. “We’re going to miss them a lot. But I’m just happy that we could end on a good note.”

Sydney Bennett, Jesse Thompson, Natalie Bradley and Megan Kolakowski all played key roles for the Chargers this year. However, of the four seniors, only Bennett started.

So things are looking bright for the 2013-14 season. Jacobs and Leead will return in the backcourt and Olelewe will be back in the front court. Brittany Mazal plays the two or three, a versatile player who will return on the wing for Agoura.

And Oliver will be back after making his first year as coach memorable. He had coached a lot of club teams and did private coaching, but “thought I’d give it a chance to see what I could do at this level and start moving this way.

“It was the right situation for me and it made it easier to have talented people around, too.”