ONTARIO — The Oak Park girls basketball team has yet another championship plaque to add to its trophy case.
Oak Park took full advantage of its superior size, scoring in the paint, scoring on second-chance opportunities and scoring from the free throw line in a 68-57 victory over North Torrance in the CIF-SS Division 2AA championship game Friday at the Toyota Arena.
The Southern Section title is the third in a row for the Eagles (24-3), who captured the Division 5A championship in 2023 and the Division 3AA title in 2024.
Oak Park won this year’s title with just six players.
“They’re just great kids, all of them,” said Oak Park coach William Burr, who has guided the Eagles to section titles in each of his three seasons at the school. “They enjoy being around each other and I’m just super happy for them.”
Oak Park scored 34 points in the paint, compared to 12 for the Saxons (20-8) and finished with 10 second-chance points compared to five for the Saxons.
“We were hoping size would be a factor,” Burr said, “that we’d get in there and get offensive rebounds and putbacks and stuff like that.”
Sophomore guard Maya Deshautelle led all players with 30 points and 11 rebounds.
The Saxons had no choice but to foul Deshautelle, who scored 13 points from the free throw line, while the Eagles scored 20 from the line as a team, compared to 10 for North Torrance.
“Yeah, I was hoping to get to the line a lot, but obviously it depends on the other team,” Deshautelle said. “But I just try to practice my free throw as much as possible and hope that it pays off.”
“We just knew we were going to have to go into this and play smart,” she added, “and not get into foul trouble and just use our people to the best of our advantage and play as a family.”
While the Saxons rarely drove to the basket, they did shoot well at times from the outside, hitting nine 3-pointers.
Senior Keimi Santiago and sophomore Camryn Shimazaki did their best to keep the Saxons close. Santiago scored 14 of her team-leading 23 points in the third quarter and hit three 3-pointers.
Shimazaki scored 18, including three 3s.
The Eagles opened the third quarter on a 10-6 run to take a 42-32 lead.
Shay Tokeshi hit a 3-pointer to get the Saxons closer, but then the Eagles went on a 7-3 run to build the lead back up to 11.
The Eagles maintained a double-digit lead throughout most of the fourth quarter.
“I think we have a lot of trust in our offense, but it’s mostly defense,” Oak Park’s Delany White said. “We don’t have to worry about scoring and having to put all the pressure on offense. When we just put all the focus on the defense, offense just comes automatically. So, I think our goal was just shutting them down, doing what they don’t want to do, making them uncomfortable and then from there just going on offense and executing.”
The Saxons and Eagles both advance to the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Tuesday, March 4.