Windward Hoops Squads Advance

The Windward School girls basketball team dominated its second-round opponent in the CIF Souther Section Division 4 playoffs Saturday night, beating Azusa 78-21.

Every Windward player got significant minutes against the Aztecs (15-13) and some of its top scorers weren’t even starters.

“We were a good 10 deep,” Wildcats assistant coach Vanessa Nygaard said. “Everybody came in and played hard and contributed.”

Windward’s top two scorers were freshmen: point guard Jordin Canada (17 points) and forward Kristen Simon (14 points). Juniors Imani Stafford and Paris Baird each added 10 points.

Canada was especially impressive, playing her first game after a two-and-a-half week break due to an injury from a knee to the ribs at the end of a game against Sierra Canyon game. At one point in the third quarter she scored seven straight points in two minutes.

“It felt like normal, playing with my teammates again,” said Canada, who admitted it was tough watching her teammates play three games without her, but said she worked to keep herself in shape and take shots at practice.

“The kid’s phenomenal…she’s a gamer," Nygaard said. "She’s going to be a very good player in the future, she’s already one of the best point guards in LA. In four years she’ll be the player everyone’s talking about.”

Azusa took a quick 4-2 lead before Windward (22-4) went on a 27-0 run over the next eight minutes and never looked back. It held Azusa to just seven points in the first half.

Windward also had 20 blocks, led by Stafford’s eight and four apiece from Baird and Simon. In their previous five games, the Wildcats had tallied 22 blocks.

The much smaller Aztecs relied largely on outside shooting but their shots just weren’t falling in the first half. They picked it up in the second half, scoring 14 points--double their first-half total.

The Windward girls had a bye in the first round of CIF playoffs. They next play Atascadero on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

Boys basketball

The Windward boys (21-7) were on the road and defeated Tahquitz (13-11) easily, 85-42, in the second round of the Division 4AA playoffs Friday night. The Wildcats will host El Segundo in the quarterfinals Tuesday at 7 pm.

“We started off really fast and we kind of just kept it up from there,” said Windward senior Wesley Saunders, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

In their first-round game against Los Angeles Cathedral on Wednesday, the Wildcats had been flat and sluggish at times but that was not the case Friday.

“We worked out a few things on our defense that were going wrong, that were missing in the first game,” Saunders said. “We were more focused this time...We really just came out with a game plan and we executed our game plan really well.”

Junior Nick Stover led the Wildcats with 27 points, followed by sophomore Jordan Wilson with 16 points (including four three-pointers) and junior Luke Silverman-Lloyd with 13 points.

Soccer

Windward’s boys soccer team (10-6-3), seeded No. 3 in Division 6, was upset 2-1 by wildcard Riverside Notre Dame (14-7-5) Friday afternoon in the first round of the playoffs. The Wildcats’ lone goal was scored by sophomore Dylan S. Kelley.

The girls soccer team lost 3-0 on the road to Don Lugo in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs.