Second-seeded East Union may have led the entire NorCal Division III girls quarterfinal against visiting No. 7 West Campus, but the game came down to the wire at Dalben Center.
Clinging to a one-point lead with 6.9 seconds remaining, Ava Barrera drained a pair of free throws for the host Lancers.
The Warriors of Sacramento gave one last charge, but East Union’s Lulu Dayeh deflected the ball off of a West Campus player, sealing the 48-45 win.
“This is a game of adjustments,” East Union coach Jim Agostini said. “We threw together a defense yesterday that we have not used all year. We had a huge challenge with that big girl (Loismary Justice), and number zero (Naomi Johnson) is just as good. She went off for 30 points against Central Catholic in their (Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV) championship game, scoring 30 out of their 49.
“We just threw a junk defense together. Sometimes, some people’s junk is gold for someone else, and that’s what happened tonight.”
The Lancers (28-6) gave themselves some breathing room, scoring the game’s first 11 points.
“This was a great start,” Agostini said. “This makes back-to-back playoff games that we got off to great starts.
“You have to compliment the ladies on that being able to play in a big game like this.”
East Union’s Zyondupree Beasley tallied a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds along with three assists and a steal. Beasley buried back-to-back 3-pointers as part of her 10-point first-period barrage.
“The first quarter was a good quarter,” Beasley said. “Warm-ups were going good, and I felt good. Coach said to let it fly, and that’s what I did. Once Shebra (Rezaye) hit one, I kind of just followed her lead, and they started falling.
“Toward the end of the first quarter, we started passing the ball around a lot and playing team basketball.”
Rezaye (15 points, six assists, three steals) nailed a 3-pointer to start the scoring for the Lancers.
“We got off to a hot start,” Rezaye said. “Then I think we got too comfortable, we let our guard down and they took advantage of that.
“But we came back and locked down and took it from there.”
Barrera flirted with a double-double, scoring all 10 of her points in the second half while pulling down nine rebounds with two assists.
“We came out hard,” Barrera said. “We had great defense in the first quarter, absolutely great. But then in the second half, we were having a little bit of trouble getting it to the hoop, but we found it.”
Barrera was 4 for 4 in free throws down the stretch.
