By LUKE JOHNSON
Special to the Tribune
To put this into perspective, Miramonte High School girls’ basketball is ranked fifth in the nation on Maxpreps, while Alhambra is ranked 9,524th. Both are in the Diablo Foothill Athletic League.
Miramonte coach Kelly Sopak sat his top three players the entire first half of their meeting Tuesday night, all NCAA Division I-bound seniors: Utah Valley-signee Keana Delos Santos, Eastern Washington-signee Uriah Howard and undeclared Sabrina Ionescu, who is the country’s fourth best recruit according to ESPN.
The score at halftime was 20-14 in favor of the undefeated Matadors (13-0). Sopaf inserted his three superstars at the start of the third quarter, with the game too close for comfort, and they never let up. The final score was 80-17 with the host Bulldogs (3-10) unable to make a basket in the entire fourth quarter.
“We’ve got three games this week. We play tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 12), Friday and then we play nationally ranked Mater Dei on Saturday, so I wanted to get as many kids in tonight and Friday as we can to save legs, because it’s going to be a tough week for us,” Sopak said.
Ionescu added that the plan to rest in the first half was to grow talent in the depth of the roster for long-term beneficial reasons.
“We want to get the younger people some confidence, so I think putting them out there and letting them see how it is to start and not come off the bench is going to help us in the long run,” she said.
Twelve out of 13 Miramonte players scored. Howard had 14, Delos Santos had nine and Ionescu had eight with four assists.
Sophomore forward Jordyn Bryant also contributed with 10 points, six steals and four rebounds.
When asked if he felt disrespected by Miramonte not putting its best players on the floor in the first half, Alhambra coach Jason Bautista responded, “No comment.”
Since joining the varsity squad as freshmen, Ionescu, Howard and Delos Santos are undefeated in the DFAL (39-0). With 3:25 remaining in the first half, junior center Karissa Wiebalk laid it in to put Alhambra up 12-11, but the lead only lasted for one possession. Wiebalk finished with a team-high 7 points and six rebounds.
Miramonte now has three wins in league, and will host Dublin, who is also undefeated against DFAL opponents (2-0), on Friday (Jan. 15). Alhambra drops to 0-2, and heads to Walnut Creek Friday to face a team with an identical record, Los Lomas.
