Payback.
Bishop Diego’s girls basketball team used a 9-0 run in overtime to take down rival Carpinteria on Thursday, in the process beating out the Warriors for second place in the Frontier League after a 32-26 victory.
The Cardinals, who finish their regular season with an 18-9 record, avenged a 43-39 loss to the Warriors in their first meeting. Carpinteria enters the postseason as the Frontier League’s third-place team and wraps up its season with a 15-9 record.
Bishop Diego’s Dalise Spence tries to keep possession away from several Warriors.
“We wanted to come back with a win,” said Cardinals senior Dalise Spence, who score a team-high 9 points, including four free throws in overtime. “They beat us at home so we wanted to beat them in their house.”
The Warriors led much of the game but needed Caitlin Wallace’s two free throws with 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie it at 23-23 and force overtime. The Cardinals were unable to win at the end of regulation on their final possession.
Wallace scored Carpinteria’s final five points. The two free throws and a 3-pointer at the start of overtime that gave the Warriors a 26-23 lead.
It was all Bishop from there as the Cardinals scored the game’s final nine points.
Spence stood up to the pressure, scoring all of her points in the fourth quarter and overtime. After missing five of her first six free throws, including two with 30 seconds remaining in regulation, Spence drained four straight in the extra period.
“The crowd was really pumped up and it was hard to play with them,” Spence said of the first half, before she was able to tune it out. “I wanted to score and my free throws were not going in so I told myself to just get them higher.”
Bishop Diego head coach Jeff Burich was tickled by Spence’s composure.
“I’m so happy for her. Living in Carpinteria and hearing the crowd over there, you know, and just the way she struggled in the beginning. To be able to block all that out and make them when they were the most important. That’s huge for her.”
Bishop Diego’s Courtney Houston
Kelsey Stimson tallied nine points, seven rebounds and four assists for Bishop. Janelle Kohler hauled in 14 rebounds and Spence added 10 rebounds to her point total.
Amanda Burch led all scorers with 15 while Wallace finished with nine. Mirina DeLeon was the only other Warrior to score.
Burch and Wallace both crumbled to the court in noticeable pain at different points on Thursday. Burch was able to play through while Wallace missed a few minutes at the start of the fourth quarter.
“We both had our legs cramp up. Whenever we would jump or run we could feel it so that was hard,” Burch said.
The late suspense made up for a rough first half in which neither team reached double figures in scoring. The Warriors still led 9-7 at halftime after managing to score just one point in the second quarter.
“They guarded Caitlin and Amanda really well and we had a rare off-night on free throws,” said Carpinteria head coach Dan Mercer, whose team converted 6-of-15 attempts. “We didn’t get to the basket like we normally do.”
Playoff pairings will be announced on Sunday.
BISHOP DIEGO 32, CARPINTERIA 26, OT
BISHOP DIEGO – Houston 2, Spence 9, Stimson 9, Thornhill 1, Kohler 5, Breuer 4, Perez 2.
CARPINTERIA – Burch 15, Wallace 9, DeLeon 2.
Bishop Diego 4 3 8 8 (9) – 32
Carpinteria 8 1 7 7 (3) – 26
