Derby Has Huskies on the Move

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  Trailing by five points, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter, it appeared the North Hollywood High girls’ basketball team was on its way to a fourth consecutive quarterfinal loss in the City Section 4-A Division playoffs.

But the Huskies reeled off 11 straight points and never looked back for a 69-57 victory over Garfield on Wednesday night at North Hollywood High.

Garfield ends the season 19-8.

“Even when we fell behind, the look in our players’ eyes said, ‘We’re not going to end here,’ ” North Hollywood Coach Rich Allen said. “And I knew we had one good spurt left in us.”

Markia Derby scored 22 points for the third-seeded Huskies (25-2), including a layup off a no-look pass from teammate Tashean Thomas that gave North Hollywood a 61-53 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

“We fell apart in the third quarter,” said Derby, a 5-foot-7 junior guard. “We were committing dumb fouls, rushing our shots and playing bad defense. But we just didn’t give up.”

Lindsay Sotero-Higa and Claudia Villa each added 14 points for the Huskies.