Canyon High girls basketball’s Alaina Garcia executed a behind-the-back pass to Canyon’s Krystal Amato, who then made a layup.
It was one of many fancy passes for Garcia, who was one of 19 seniors to compete in The Signal’s eighth annual SCV Hoops Finale girls game held at Saugus High on Thursday.
“Alaina was doing whatever she could,” said Canyon’s Daisy Cardenas. “It was a fun game, so why not try new things?”
PHOTOS: 2017 SCV Hoops Finale
The “away” team, which won 55-37, was comprised of Valencia’s Kenadee Honaker, Ashlee Ane, Jade Jordan and Kayla Konrad; Golden Valley’s Serene Tyus and Norma Chavez; West Ranch’s Izzy Singer; Hart’s Nicole Benz; Albert Einstein Academy’s Helen Rodriguez; and Trinity Classical Academy’s Taylor Oshiro.
The home team featured players from Canyon, Saugus and Santa Clarita Christian.
“We just wanted to go out and have a good time with it because we were playing with girls from our league that we played against for four years, so just have fun with it,” Konrad said.
Konrad was named the game MVP with 14 points, but she had the goal of getting everyone on the scoreboard.
“It’s the last game for everyone and everyone did score on our team,” Konrad said. “So we were kind of just like, pass the ball and get the open shots.”
Benz won the three-point shooting contest at halftime with six made shots in the final round. She shot from the corner of the arc, while teammates rebounded her shots.
Canyon’s Krystal Amato led the opposing “home” team with 12 points. Fellow Cowboy Shauna Van Grinsven scored 10.
Defensively, the home team’s strategy began with man-to-man defense.
“We decided we were going to play man early on just to keep our defensive intensity up. It just followed from there,” Benz said. “Everyone on this team is really unselfish, which made it really fun.”
The teams (Valencia’s Jerry Mike coached the away squad, and SCCS’s Dennis Schwesinger the home team) hadn’t practiced together before the game.
“It kind of took a while on the court just to figure out how everyone worked, but we got going,” Konrad said.
All proceeds of the game benefitted special education programs through the Hart district’s WiSH Education Foundation.
