Redondo Rebounds to Finish 3rd in Hoops Tourney

For Redondo Union, it was a tale of two different halves.

Fortunately for the Sea Hawks, the second one dictated the outcome in their favor. They rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to record a 64-46 romp over Inglewood for a third-place finish in the Battle at the Beach girls basketball tournament Saturday at Redondo.

Senior forward Shayna Stuart, who led the Sea Hawks with 17 points and also pulled down seven rebounds, said Coach Marcelo Enriquez inspired the team at halftime.

"Coach got us really pumped up and we tried to be more aggressive in the second half," Stuart said. "Plus, we wanted to go out and beat Inglewood. I'm not sure what happened in the first half, but we focused and played our game in the second half. I didn't really look at the scoreboard, but I knew we turned it around pretty quick."

It took less than four minutes for the Sea Hawks (6-3) to take the lead and they never looked back. Then, they buried the Sentinels (6-3) in the fourth quarter.

Enriquez said his team needed a wake-up call at intermission.

"I was disappointed at how we started out," Enriquez said. "We acted like we didn't even come to play. But I told them at halftime to just keep the lead to single digits and we'd go from there."

Redondo opened the third quarter with a 13-3 spurt to take the lead. After Michelle Lowery, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, scored on a putback to tie the score at 36, she gave the Sea Hawks the lead on a free throw with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter.

Redondo took a 46-42 lead heading into the final period, when they blew the contest open by shutting down Inglewood on offense and beating the Sentinels' trapping defense.

The Sea Hawks limited Inglewood to only 13 points in the second half, three in the final quarter.

"We picked up our defensive intensity in the second half and that made a big difference," Enriquez said.

Redondo also got a boost offensively from point guard Riki Murakami and Annie Park, who scored 12 points apiece and handled Inglewood's pressure defense better in the second half. But that wasn't the case in the first half, when the Sentinels raced to a double-digit lead and dictated the tone of the game.

Inglewood jumped out to a 17-6 advantage on the 3-point shooting of Zhane Carter, who scored nine of her 11 points in the first quarter. She also got help from center Deajenae Scurry, who led Inglewood with 15 points, as the Sentinels took a 21-10 lead after the opening quarter.

Redondo tried to cut into the lead in the second quarter, but each time it appeared ready to make a run, the Sentinels responded with ones of their own. After Stuart's basket cut the lead to seven (23-16) with 5:51 left in the second, Inglewood answered with a 8-2 spurt for a 31-18 lead with 2:08 left in the half. The half ended with Inglewood leading, 33-24.

But the second half was all Redondo.

"I'm pleased with the how the girls responded," Enriquez said. "This game and the tournament told me some things about our team and today's game said plenty. They showed me some good things, but we can obviously improve on some others."