The biggest loser in last week’s non-league game between the Culver City High School girls’ varsity basketball team and the Serra High School Cavaliers may have been St. Bernard High.
In a reunion of four accomplished St. Bernard transfers, California State Division IV champion Serra outlasted CIF finalist Culver City, 70-55.
The Lady Centaurs had St. Bernard transfer Michelle Curry, but the Lady Cavaliers had three of them in Cydney Bolton, Brooke Bayman and Chyanne Butler.
The Cavaliers started out with a commanding lead. Three-point baskets by Kate Lin and Kelsey Ueda got Culver as close as five points in the third quarter.
Serra led 49-40 after the third quarter and Culver narrowed the bulge to six points in the final quarter of the game before Serra, with its balanced effort, pulled away.
“We fought for more than awhile,” Culver coach Julian Anderson said. “We had a couple of bad breaks here and there. Our confidence was there. We were able to play.”
The Centaurs were led by Ueda with 14 points while Lin and Curry added 13 points apiece.
However, the Cavaliers are the top ranked team in Division IVAA and they already have a win over defending Southern Section Division IVAA and Southern California Regional Open Division champion Mar Vista Windward, which they recorded in early December at the Redondo Battle at the Beach Classic. Serra lost in the finals to Santa Ana Mater Dei, ranked No. 2 in the United States, 90-61.
Bayman led Serra with a game-high 17 points, followed by Butler with 16 and Caila Hailey with 12.
The Lady Centaurs started the Ocean League with home wins over Morningside, last Wednesday, and Santa Monica, on Friday.
The Centaurs will also have another tough battle at always-tough Hawthorne Friday at 6 p.m., before hosting Beverly Hills next Wednesday at the same time.
Culver played a big Ocean League game, Tuesday of this week, at Inglewood. The Sentinels defeated the Centaurs, 52-40, at the Inglewood Tournament in late November, but Culver was without Curry, who was ineligible at that time due to a transfer rule.
