Jennifer Jimenez held her head high as she left the game with five fouls and just over a minute remaining.
When she got to the end of the Bishop Diego bench and sat down, it hit her that her four-year varsity basketball career had ended, and she got choked up a bit. Coach Jeff Burich — who learned early in the season that he was actually a distant cousin of his senior captain — came over for a sincere embrace.
The Cardinals fell to top-seeded Chadwick at the Brickhouse Wednesday, 45-33, after making the CIF quarterfinals for the first time in many years. The Dolphins got to the free-throw line 30 times on the night, and leading-scorer Breanna Madrazo went 15-21 from the charity stripe with 17 points. That was all Chadwick needed to pull away in the second half.
Janelle Kohler led the Cardinals with 12 points.
“(Madrazo) did a good job of drawing the fouls,” Burich said. “We tried to avoid the contact because their post player got in foul trouble so we knew it was going to be in her hands the whole time. She was a tough one to guard.”
The first quarter-and-a-half of the game was ugly, as the ball was turned over like pancake at IHOP and the Dolphins travelled so many times they should have brought their passports. The score was 13-1 in favor of Chadwick after six minutes, and it was stuck at 15-5 nearly the entire second quarter. The Cardinals, however, surged just before the half. Heather Aijian nailed a 3-pointer and Kohler got a lay-up and free-throw to make it 17-12 with 1:07 left.
Junior guard Ariel Perez stole the ball and swished a baseline trey at the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to two at 17-16 and send the rowdy Cardinal student section into a frenzy.
Madrazo hit her first five free throws of the second half and Lena Kelly hit two of her four 3-pointers in the first few minutes of the third as Chadwick took a 30-19 lead and never looked back.
Jimenez’s career was eclectic to say the least. Despite being about 5-foot-5, she played center as a sophomore before switching to guard last season, when she hit a total of three 3-pointers. In her senior campaign, she led the team with 35 treys.
“I knew I had to step it up since we only had two seniors. It was my last year, so I had to try and go out my hardest,” said Jimenez, who hopes to play college softball next year.
Burich was talking to Jimenez’s mom in the stands at the beginning of the year, and found out both he and Jimenez are members of a large Irish family.
“Her grandmother and my great grandmother or great grandfather were brothers or sisters or something like that,” said Burich. “Ever since then we’ve had a bond… It’s been an incredible run having her.”
Aijian, Bishop’s other senior, also drew kind praise from Burich.
“She’s a great role model… She’s got a great knowledge for basketball, and she’s the one you want your daughter to grow up and be like,” he said.
It was quite a season for the seniors to finish up on.
CHADWICK 45, BISHOP DIEGO 33
CHADWICK — Geiger 2, Madrazo 17, Bush 10, Kelly 12, Lapham 2, Finley 2. Totals 7 19-30 45.
BISHOP DIEGO — Perez 2, Breuer 2, Houston 3, Aijian 3, Kohler 12, Stimson 5, Jimenez 5, Spence 1. Totals 7 9-17 33.
Chadwick………15 2 14 14 — 45
Bishop Diego….5 11 9 8 — 33
3-point goals — C 4 (Kelly 4), BD 2 (Houston, Aijian).
Total fouls — C 19, BD 20.
Fouled out — Jimenez.
Team records — C 22-4, BD 18-9.
