In a wild and intense game, it was a 5-foot-5 sophomore who made the biggest shot for the girls basketball team in the 12th Annual Martin Luther King Basketball Classic.
With the Lancers down three points with four seconds left in the first overtime period, Sarah Kopcha knocked down a clutch 3-pointer to send the game into double overtime and give La Salle a boost to seal a 57-52 victory over Crenshaw on Monday at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium on the campus of Pasadena City College.
“She has hit big shots for us all year,” said La Salle head coach Kevin Cormier of Kopcha, who scored 11 points. “We have depended on her to take shots for us and she comes through every time we need her.”
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After Crenshaw (11-7) went up 48-44 in the final minute of the first overtime, Billie Rude made 1 of 2 free throws to cut the deficit to three.
The Lancers (13-7) received the ball back, but missed on two 3-pointers. La Salle got another offensive rebound and called a timeout with 10 seconds left, which lead to Kopcha’s game-tying 3-point shot.
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La Salle scored the first nine points of the second overtime and never looked back.
Even with a four-point deficit in the final seconds of the first overtime, Cormier said his team never gave up.
“This is a veteran group that knows that we got to keep playing. So we know we have 32 minutes, it was a little bit more tonight, but we will play to the end until the clock stops,” Cormier said.
In a game that La Salle led for nearly the entire time, the Cougars went on a 5-0 run to tie the score at 37-all with 26.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Senior forward Itos Aikhionbare, who scored a game-high 21 points for the Lancers, missed the game-winning 3-pointer to end regulation.
“I thought we did some good things at the end of regulation to win the basketball game, but we just made some errors down the stretch,” Cormier said. “Once we got into overtime we basically told the girls that they have to be patient.”
The Cougars were led by senior Ashlee Cornelious and sophomore Charity Farmer with 17 points apiece.
Crenshaw did most of its damage from the free throw line shooting 25-for-39 for the game.
In the first half the La Salle defense contained the Cougars to one field goal and nine points.
The Lancer offense wasn’t impressive either, but went into halftime up 16-9.
However, both the Lancers and the Cougars picked up the pace in the third quarter, as both teams scored 15 points apiece.
La Salle will now open its Camino Real league schedule at home on Thursday against St. Joseph.