Windward Squads Advance to Regional Semis

It wasn’t a pretty start. With two-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter in Thursday night’s Division IV Southern California Regional quarterfinal contest, the Windward Schools boys' basketball team trailed Sherman Oaks Buckley 16-4.

That’s when Wildcats Coach Miguel Villegas called a timeout and reminded his team of its slow start in the March 2 CIF-Southern Section Division 4AA championship game, which the Wildcats narrowly lost to Orange Lutheran.

“I said, ‘Guys, remember what happened a week and a half ago?," Villegas said. "It’s going to happen again if we continue to play bad defense.’ I lit a fire, and they responded to that."

The coach's words touched off a 15-2 run that gave the second-seeded Wildcats (24-8) the lead and the momentum en route to a 76-55 victory over the visiting Griffins (23-6).

Seconds after the timeout ended, junior Luke Silverman-Lloyd hit a three-pointer, followed by senior Miles Gueno’s three consecutive shots--including a buzzer-beating layup--to pull the Wildcats to within 16-13 at the end of the first quarter.

Midway through the second quarter Windward took the lead and ran away with the game.

“We started off slow but after awhile we got the jitters out and just played our game,” said sophomore guard Jordan Wilson, who finished with 12 points. Of the loss in the section final he said: “It definitely was on my mind. It was a very tough loss, so we’re just going for state now.”

The Wildcats had plenty of fun Thursday night, evident in the laughs on the court and in their relaxed play. After senior forward Wesley Saunders dunked the ball late in the second quarter, Wilson tried to give him opportunities to get more dunks, which only worked once, on an alley-oop early in the second half. Saunders led the team with 15 points.

With 5:45 left in the final quarter and the Wildcats up 64-40, Villegas pulled all of his starters and let the reserves play. From the bench, the starters cheered wildly as teammates who rarely score got their chance.

“They work really hard in practice, it was just great to see them get the opportunity to go out there and play,” Saunders said. “Aly-[Reza Javani] got to score and Aaron [Siegal] was trying to get there but he didn’t quite get there.”

Junior Nick Stover had 14 points, Silverman-Lloyd added 11 and Gueno had nine points.

The boys face third-seeded Fresno Washington Union, which got past Inglewood Morningside 69-65 in overtime Thursday night. The regional semifinal game will tip off Saturday at 7 p.m., and Windward will again have home-court advantage.

The team was pumped up by the fun atmosphere. For the first time in the school's 40-year history, both the boys and girls teams were playing in the state playoffs, with a doubleheader at home. The Windward jazz band even made its first-ever appearance at a basketball game.

Girls basketball

Having had over a week to savor its victory in the CIF-Southern Section Division 4AA final in Anaheim, the girls overcame poor shooting in the first half to rout Westlake Village Oaks Christian, 72-37, in Thursday night's Southern California Regional quarterfinal game.

While the second-seeded Wildcats (26-4) jumped out to a 10-0 lead, they also made only seven of 43 field goal attempts in the first two quarters.

“We’ve been off for a long time, so we were a little sluggish to start off in the first half,” Windward Coach Steve Smith said. “I was really proud of the girls in the second half. They picked it up and we started communicating better defensively and offensively.”

Senior guard/forward Milica Toskovic scored the game’s first eight points and ended up leading Windward with 13 points.

By the end of the first quarter the Wildcats led 12-4 against the visiting Lions (25-9) and it looked like it would be a low-scoring game. Midway through the third quarter Windward was still only up 38-28.

That’s when junior center Imani Stafford scored her first basket, tapping in a missed shot by freshman Jordin Canada. Stafford had missed most of the first half after picking up two fouls in the first four minutes. Her putback sparked a 12-2 run that put Windward up 50-33 by the end of the third quarter.

The Wildcats finished with a flourish, outscoring Oaks Christian 22-4 in the fourth quarter. Stafford had 10 points and 10 rebounds while Canada and sophomore Courtney Jaco scored 12 points apiece.

In Stafford’s absence freshman forward Kristen Simon stepped up with nine points and 12 rebounds.

Bri Barrett led Oaks Christian with 17 points.

The Wildcats will host Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (27-9) in the regional semifinals Saturday at 5 p.m. LACES pulled off a 52-47 upset of third-seeded La Jolla Bishop’s on Thursday night.