Granada Hills Charter girls basketball holds off King/Drew, returns to City Section championship: Video highlights, 3 takeaways

PASADENA, Calif. – All is well for Granada Hills Charter fans.

After stifling King/Drew 43-37 in a defensive grinder on Saturday, the Highlanders are one win away from getting revenge against Westchester and getting back on top of the City Section.

Marianne Boco led GHC with 17 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals in the Open Division semifinals victory, and Krystal Pineda came up big as well with a double-double.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

PINEDA HAS CAREER NIGHT WHEN IT'S NEEDED MOST

It didn't look like GHC was going to need a spark on Saturday. It was a slow offensive night against another strong defensive squad, but it appeared for a while that the Highlanders' defense was going to lead them to a decisive win whether or not their offense came along for the ride.

They jumped out to a 10-2 lead after one quarter, and led King/Drew 14-4 about halfway through the second.

But the Golden Eagles' offense eventually woke up, and they quickly got back into the game. After Granada opened up its first double-digit lead, K/D chipped it down to 14-9 and 20-15 at halftime, and then opened the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 22-20 lead.

Reigning LACS John Wooden Award winner Marianne Boco manufactured 17 points and 4 assists on the night, about her nightly averages, but the Highlanders' star guard didn't quite get into the type of rhythm she sometimes finds where she can singlehandedly take over any game.

As the Highlanders struggled to hit spot-up threes and create easy looks inside, they needed a spark after all. And senior forward Krystal Pineda was ready.

Pineda is known mainly as one of the premier charge-takers in the City Section – if not the whole Southland – who at one point drew six charges in a game earlier this season. But on Saturday, Granada needed her to show up in the box score, and she took a starring role.

Pineda scored a career-high 14 points on 4-6 shooting and tied a career-high with 14 rebounds, providing both production and an infusion of energy every time Granada started losing momentum. At 5-8, Pineda didn't have any size or length advantage inside against the Golden Eagles, but she ran the floor, filled lanes, and put on a clinic of using simple positioning in the low post to score on dump-offs and putbacks.

Not every play went Pineda's way, but she stuck with all of them. Pineda had the highest motor on the floor from quarter to quarter on Saturday, and she cleaned up inside against a team with no shortage of length and athleticism.

GHC responded to King/Drew's first lead of the game by going on a 7-0 run of its own. The Highlanders led 30-24 after three quarters, opened up a 39-28 lead with about three minutes left in the game, and put together a defensive gem to keep King/Drew from getting within striking distance. 

BACK ON THE BIG STAGE

It hasn't been that long since the Highlanders were last in the Open Division finals under head coach Jared Honig – only four years ago, in 2019, they defeated Westchester 59-49 to claim the City Section throne.

However, perhaps their return to the title game is made a little bit more gratifying after they came so close to the finals during promising campaigns in 2019-20 and 2021-22 but came up just short.

Last year, the team that knocked out top-seeded Granada was No. 4 Westchester in something of an upset. Mariah Blake was responsible for nearly half of Westchester's production in both the scoring and rebounding departments as the Comets knocked off GHC 49-42. This time around, GHC knows exactly what it's up against facing Blake and Westchester, and it's mentally prepared to fight like heck to protect the defensive glass better.

Does that mean Westchester will be any less of a handful this year? No – quite the contrary. But the same can be said of Granada. It should be a complete 50-50 game as the undeniable two best teams in the LACS go at it for all the marbles.

KING/DREW CONTINUES RAPID IMPROVEMENT, COULD BE THREAT IN REGIONALS

For the second straight season, King/Drew got knocked out of the section playoffs by Granada Hills Charter. When they faced off last year, GHC routed the Golden Eagles 61-33 in a game that was never close. This time, K/D gave GHC a run for its money after proving itself as a top-four team in the section throughout the season.

With only a few seniors in the mix, the Golden Eagles are only going to keep rising. Led by the backcourt of Alexis Wallace and Anayla Anderson, they will almost assuredly be a full-fledged Open Division championship contender in 2023-24. Other impact players Christiauna Taylor, Kaitlin Johnson, and Jaylah White are all non-seniors as well.

And they might not be done winning games in 2022-23 either. King/Drew won two CIF Division IV regional playoff games last season before falling to Yucca Valley in overtime in the Southern Region semifinals. There are a few possibilities, but the Golden Eagles seem likely to get place in Division II for regionals this time around, and they could potentially make some serious noise.