On February 12 and 14, the University High School (UHS) girls basketball team won two home games against Northwood High School and Irvine High School to claim the Pacific Coast League title and finished with a 9-1 league record. This is the Trojans’ first title since 2012, when they tied for first place with Woodbridge High School, and their first outright title since 2004. The girls will play at home next week in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs.
The team clinched the title with their 49-23 blowout victory against Northwood on February 12. Emily Reiland (Sr.) and Dana Bossenmeyer (Sr.) led the team, each scoring 13 and 10 points respectively. Reiland scored 7 free throws during this game, bringing her season record at the time to 143 free throws. She broke the 25 year old record of 140, set by Denise Gandara in 1989. Reiland had also previously broken the UHS record for career free throws (she now has 319).
Bossenmeyer said, “It feels amazing to win league. It was probably my only goal for our team going into league play and it’s just that much more special because it’s my senior year. CIF will be tough; we’re definitely going to be playing some hard teams, but we’re just going to try our best and try to keep this season going as long as possible.”
Reiland said, “It was amazing to win league. Going into the season we really had no expectations, but we were able to really play well together and compete. Being with Dana and my last season we knew we had to leave it all on the court and I think that’s just what we did. I have no expectations for CIF, we are just going to do the best we can.”
On February 14, the team finished league with a 58-30 win against Irvine. Reiland again led the team in scoring with 23 points, 6 of which were free throws. Allison Piper (So.) also played well, scoring 13 points with 3 three-pointers. “The seniors have wanted a league win for a long time and we really worked hard to get it,” said Piper. “It felt really good to win and I think we deserved it.”
Yasmine Choroomi (So.) said, “This is my first year on Varsity and winning league has been the most amazing experience. We’ve been working hard all season and the last two games were challenging but rewarding. None of this would have been possible without Coach Bradshaw and Coach Bernal. The crowd at the Pink Out game was great and there’s nothing better than the whole gym cheering you on. I can’t wait until CIF!”
Nicole Bradshaw (Head Coach) said, “It’s a little surreal actually, I never would have predicted it. We went to Las Vegas and got beat up pretty good by some very good teams. We lost those games, but it was a turning point for us. We vowed coming back that we were going to practice even harder and work even harder and we were all going to know our roles and just get better, and we did.”
The UHS girls basketball team is ranked 15^th in southern section CIF out of 32 qualifying teams and 567 teams in total. They will play their first CIF game on Saturday, February 22 against Santa Fe High School at the UHS Stadium.
By ELYSIA OUYANG
Staff Writer