The Gahr High girls basketball team defeated Patriot High 55-32 this past Monday to win third place of the Bronze Division of the Surf City Holiday Classic. Junior Chloe Beard (holding the trophy) and sophomore Rachel Fredenburg (third from right on back row) were named to the All-Tournament team. PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF
January 1, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
HUNTINGTON BEACH-Once known as the Larry Doyle/Dan Wiley Orange County Tournament of Champions, the popular girls basketball tournament has gone through a name change and an expansion. It used to be a tournament of one 16-team bracket with games at Edison High and Marina High, but now there 26 participants covering three divisions and among those were Gahr High and La Mirada High, both situated in the Bronze Division.
Gahr began the tournament with a 64-20 win over Mission Viejo High last Thursday afternoon at Marina. After splitting their next two games, the Gladiators had no problems with Patriot High this past Monday in a 55-32 victory, claiming third place in the division. In the opener, Gahr bolted out to a 13-2 lead and was never challenged by a short-handed Diablos squad. The Gladiators were also missing some players but made the most with the eight players who suited up.
“We had a chance to run some stuff that we can’t run in practice because we don’t have the bodies,” said Gahr head coach Alfred Howard. “We’re in this bracket basically due to numbers. We want to compete every time we go out, and we did compete. But once you exert your dominance of a team, you start working on stuff that you need to work on to prepare for better games. So, we had a chance to do that today.”
Sophomores Rachel Fredenburg and Ella Mims paced Gahr in the opening quarter, combining for 12 rebounds, six points, three assists and two blocked shots while junior Chloe Beard scored seven points. She added another seven points in the second quarter as the Gladiators scored the final 18 points of the half to lead 44-9 at the break.
Beard led all scorers with 18 points while Mims had 14 points, 13 rebounds, five steals and four assists and senior Simar Sogi pitched in with a dozen points. Fredenburg finished with 10 points and 14 boards, senior Jody Colbert contributed with seven rebounds and senior Karen Barrocan came off the bench to score seven rebounds, grab two rebounds and get a pair of steals. Gahr was able to do this without the services of senior starter Christine Ho.
“Well, that’s what we do have; winning does that,” said Howard. “We have Rachel; we have Ella, a freshman coming in from the area. But my first year, we went all the way to the [CIF-Southern Section] finals. So hey, their parents said, ‘you know what, why go across town to a [Long Beach] Poly or why go across town to St. Anthony. We were able to inherit that talent. When you win, you get those players that want to be a part of your program, and we were fortunate to get that youth. So, when we lose Simar and Jody and Karen and Christine, the cupboard’s not all the way bare.”
Last Friday, Gahr cruised past Calvary Chapel Santa Ana High 82-23 behind 14 points from Beard and Mims before falling to Tesoro High 55-52 in overtime last Saturday as Fredenburg led the way with 15 points followed by 13 each from Beard and Sogi.
The Gladiators would score the first 10 points against Patriot in the third place game and did not allow the Warriors to score a basket until the 2:42 mark of the first half. By then, it was 27-8 as Patriot converted on seven of 10 free throws in the first half. Mims led everyone with 13 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, had four assists and three steals while Fredenburg grabbed 17 rebounds and scored 12 points as seven of the nine players who saw action scored with eight getting at least two rebounds. As a team, the Gladiators had 49 rebounds and 18 steals. Beard and Fredenburg were named to the All-Tournament team.
This was Gahr’s first and only tournament of the season while improving to 10-5 as it prepares to face Paramount High on Friday in the Gateway League opener.
“As a program, we’re trying to get to a point to where fundraising and things like that can afford us to do bigger things,” said Howard. “But for us, it’s a good tournament to stay local. Again, with [the tournament] being three levels, our numbers is the reason we’re in the lower [division]. We have two starters out of town [and] two j.v. girls moved up.”
La Mirada was in a tight battle in the first half against Patriot in its pool play opener last Thursday. But the Matadores were outscored 24-8 in the third quarter and lost to the Warriors 61-45 at Marina. It has been a recurring theme this season for head coach Victoria Luong; seeing her team have a good first half before self-destructing in the second half as the Matadores only had six players against Patriot.
“Absolutely it’s frustrating as a coach, and I don’t know who shows up,” she said. “Again, I’ve said this a dozen times now; their mental game…they get into their own head, and the fact that we only had six players. We don’t have much of a bench and a lot of them were getting tired. After the holidays, they over-indulge a little bit, so they’re a little bit more exhausted. It’s a mental block and we’re working on that.”
The Matadores scored the first six points and led 9-2 before Patriot went on a 12-0 run. La Mirada converted on six of 31 shots from the field in the first half, missing nine layups and turning the ball over 11 times. All but four of the points La Mirada scored in the half came from senior Jael Arreguin. Still, it was down 23-15 at the half, but any chance of a second half comeback were dashed early as the Warriors scored the first seven points, eventually building a 23-point lead nine seconds into the fourth quarter.
Arreguin led La Mirada with 14 points and had five rebounds while senior Destiny Elmore had 13 points, six rebounds and five steals. Sophomore Jordin Shaw poured in 12 points and had half a dozen boards while senior Emily Gonzalez crashed the glass for 19 rebounds. The Matadores were 16 of 62 from the field, missed 12 layups and had 25 turnovers.
“It was just too many days off for them to get it back together and to put up shots and get them in,” said Luong. “I don’t think Emily dribbled until the end of the third quarter. A lot of it is having confidence in themselves in their skillset and what they’re able to do.”
But La Mirada bounded back the remainder of the tournament, posting wins over Inglewood High (57-39) last Friday, Mission Viejo (44-30) last Saturday and Ocean View High (49-31) this past Monday. Arreguin, who was named to the All-Tournament team, had 14 points and 10 rebounds against Mission Viejo while Shaw added 15 points.
The Matadores (7-8) trailed 21-19 at the half but began the second half on a 13-2 run and never looked back. Elmore added 12 more rebounds to her season total as the team had 45 rebounds and turned the ball over 11 times. Senior Hailey Medrano pitched in with eight points and six rebounds while senior Simran Sahota came off the bench to grab seven rebounds.
“I think they’re at our level, at least the teams we’re facing,” said Luong of the tournament. “It gives us a good head start on to what league brings to us. Bellflower is our first [league] game next Friday and I think they’re comparable.”
La Mirada has been looking for consistency this season in getting wins and has now won three in a row for the first time as it is seeking to reach .500 for the first time since it was 1-1.
“Let’s just say we better,” said Luong of being consistent. “I purposely gave the girls the holidays off, and it’s a give and take. I was depending on them to practice on their own and it’s evident that they didn’t.”
