(La Canada, Ca) – La Salle’s Stephanie Payne made two crucial free-throws with 1.7 seconds remaining in the game to defeat Arcadia 48-46 at the La Canada New Years Ball Tournament.
Heading into the fourth quarter the Lancers opened up an 11-point lead as Kimi Takaoka scored 14 of her game high 22 points in the third quarter.
The Apaches went on a 14-2 run to start the final quarter and took the lead at 41-40. The next three minutes saw the lead see-saw seven times.
“We seem to get out of our rhythm in the fourth quarter,” said Lancers head coach Kevin Cormier. “Our team never could find that rhythm and we battled the rest of the evening.”
The final seconds were heartbreaking for the Apaches as they battled to tie the score with a minute to play when Joy Kang scored to tie the score at 46.
La Salle turned the ball over on the subsequent possession and allowed Arcadia one final chance with 45 seconds remaining. Arcadia looked for Juliana Okamoto (team high 17 points) but found resistance in the Lancer defense and the pass intended for Okamoto was batted out of bounds with two-seconds on the shot clock. The inbound pass was stolen by La Salle’s Jackie Pacheco and set up the dramatic final seconds.
With 10 seconds remaining the Lancers looked for Takaoka who swung the pass to Payne inside the key and went up for a shot that appeared blocked, only to have a foul called on the play that decided the game.
The win by La Salle improves their tournament record to 1-1 in Pool play, while Arcadia is now 0-1 and faces Canyon (1-0) in the final day of round-robin games in Pool C.
ARCADIA 11 8 8 19 46
LA SALLE 5 14 19 10 48
SCORING: A – Juliana Okamoto 17, Catherine Ngai 15, Joy Kang 10, Madyson Cassidy 2, Tiffany Yip 2
LS – Kim Takaoka 22, Itos Aikhuinbare 12, Stephanie Payne 4, Amalea Sideropoulos 3, Amanda Paggao 2, Denise Peterson 2, Sarah Kopcha 2, Jackie Pacheco 1
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