Buzzer 3 ousts CdM

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Should the shot have counted?

Predictably, that depends on who you ask.

The opinion that mattered Saturday night was that of the referees in the La Cañada High gymnasium. They ruled that La Cañada girls’ basketball junior guard Kristina Kurdoghlian got off her three-pointer at the buzzer in time.

The shot was a dagger for Corona del Mar. It swished through, creating pandemonium among the fans and lifting the host Spartans to a 55-52 victory in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs.

No. 2-seeded La Cañada will play top-seeded Antelope Valley, which beat Righetti, 59-41, in the other semifinal, for the title next week. But, for the third straight year, No. 3 Corona del Mar (23-7) exits in the CIF semifinals. The Sea Kings will now have to wait until March 6 to see if they earn a berth into the CIF SoCal Regional Division III playoffs.

CdM Coach Mark Decker believed that Kurdoghlian got her shot off just after the buzzer. His opinion didn’t change after watching video of the final play.

“I’m really proud of them,” Decker said of his players. “We should still be playing right now. We should be in overtime right now. I’ll definitely watch [the last shot] probably 500 times, but pretty clearly it was in her hand. Nothing we could do. I mean, the refs were out the door before the ball even hit the net, it felt like.”

Of the three semifinal losses the last three years, this one had by far the most amount of heartbreak. CdM had momentum after erasing a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit. Senior forward Natalia Bruening tied the score at 52-52 when she scored inside with 15 seconds left. La Cañada Coach Sarah Beattie called timeout to set up a play.

Beattie put the ball in the hands of her standout senior point guard Sarah Kurdoghlian, who scored a team-high 19 points. She drove left but was double-teamed and slipped. However, she managed to flip the ball back out to her cousin, who hit the shot at the buzzer to send the Spartans (26-3) to their first CIF title game in program history.

Kristina Kurdoghlian said she definitely felt that she got the shot off in time.

“I shot it, it was in the air, and it went buzzer,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Let’s toss it up and see what happens,’ and it went in. It was a miracle for me … It actually went in. It was shocking.”

It certainly shocked CdM, which never led in the game but trailed, 27-26, at halftime. But La Cañada used a balanced scoring attack in the third quarter and took a 48-34 lead early in the fourth and things appeared bleak for the Sea Kings.

Key players for both teams fouled out in the fourth quarter. The Spartans’ second-leading scorer, senior center Amber Graves, was held to just five points before fouling out with 1:13 remaining. And CdM forward Kat Hess, who scored five of her seven points in the first quarter, also fouled out after picking up two quick fouls early in the fourth.

But CdM somehow managed to trim the hosts’ lead.

“I didn’t want this to be the end,” Bruening said. “This experience with CdM basketball has been the best of my entire life, hands down best experience. I just was not ready for it to be over.”

Senior guard Melody Yoo, freshman Sami Uehara and Bruening each connected on three-pointers. Bruening, who led all scorers with 23 points, narrowed her team’s deficit to 51-47 when she connected from downtown with 1:55 remaining. More importantly to Decker, his team clamped down defensively.

“We went man at the beginning of the fourth and did a great job on that, and that got us in it,” Decker said. “There was never a point where I thought we weren’t going to win. I really felt that we were going to win, we just needed to start making some stops, and we did that.”

After Bruening missed another three-pointer, a put-back from senior center Krista Anderson trimmed the deficit to two. After the teams each made a free throw on subsequent possessions, Bruening made a key block down low. The ball went out of bounds off La Cañada, giving CdM possession with 27 seconds left, trailing by two.

Bruening ran up to hug Anderson after finishing inside to tie the score.

“The momentum was totally in our favor,” Bruening said. “Their crowd was stunned silent. We thought we were going to win this game, but stuff happens.”

In this case, “stuff” was a disputed three-pointer that left the Sea Kings one round short of playing for a CIF title yet again.

“They were playing at their home court the third game in a row,” Anderson said of the Spartans. “They had the advantage [with the referees]. It was tough for us the whole game, but she made a lucky shot. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

The Sea Kings will hope to return to the CIF State playoffs, but if not they will take pride in what they have accomplished the last three seasons. Along with the three CIF semifinal appearances, the senior core group of Bruening, Anderson and senior point guard Kelly Tam helped CdM win just its second league title last season.

“We finished playing the best we can,” Bruening said.

*

CIF Southern Section Division 3A Playoffs

Semifinal

La Cañada 55,

Corona del Mar 52

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM 12 – 14 – 8 – 18 — 52

LC 14 – 13 – 18 – 10 — 55

CdM – N. Bruening 23, Anderson 8, Hess 7, Uehara 5, Tam 4, Yoo 3, T. Bruening 2.

3-pt. goals – Hess 1, N. Bruening 1, Yoo 1, Uehara 1.

Technicals – Coach 1.

LC – S. Kurdoghlian 19, K. Kurdoghlian 13, Williams 6, Graves 5, Nazarian 5, Oakley-Stilson 2, Cervenka 2, Yasuda 1.

3-pt. goals – S. Kurdoghlian 2, K. Kurdoghlian 2, Nazarian 1.