The Culver City girls’ varsity basketball team started its season with a 38-25 win against Crossroads of Santa Monica/St. Mary in the Culver City Basketball Tournament. Their next two games in the tournament were against St. Bernard and Los Angeles View Park.
The Centaurs ran past St. Bernard 77-36 and beat View Park in the championship game 56-47. The 12-team tournament ended Saturday.
“We had the first game jitters but we played a pretty good game,” said head coach Julian Anderson after the win against Crossroads. “There are a few things we need to do right now to get better. If we can play as a tight knit group we should be alright.”
This year, the defending CIF champion Centaurs will have to fill the gap left by CIF Player of the Year, Michelle Curry and All-CIF player Kelsey Ueda.
“This year we don’t have that great player that stands out like last year,” Anderson said. “We need to become a brick wall.”
Assistant coach Tom Nakayama says the Centaurs rely on two basic components of basketball.
“We stress defense and fundamentals. If our shooting is off we can always count on our defense.”
The 2014-15 lady Centaurs will rely on Kailey Tooke, Lindsey Tanita, Megan Yoon, Katie Lin, Gwendolyn Machado, Kate Suyetsugu, Alexis Aquino and Alexis Arancibia. “Kate is really helping us this year at the guard spot and on defense,” said Anderson.
This week the Lady Centaurs will travel to the Lone Star State to play in the McDonald’s Classic in El Paso. They are scheduled to play three games in the McDonald’s tournament.
Culver City wants to have a solid preseason and get ready to defend its Ocean League title, which it has won the last three years.
The boys’ basketball team loss their first game of the year to Harvard Westlake 61-31 on Monday in the Mira Costa Pacific Shores Tournament.
They played host Mira Costa yesterday and they battle Carson today at 3 p.m. in the Mira Costa tournament.