On February 25th, the West High Girls’ basketball team faced Valencia High in the second round of the CIF playoffs. West continued their dominance from last year’s playoffs, winning with a score of 71 to 36. This win will continue the momentum the team created from the first round win against Oxnard.

   Wallace Liew (11) an avid spectator of the team commented, “The girls are definitely are not as good as last season when they went to state championships, but I think they can still win CIF this year.” Liew was correct in his belief that the team would perform well. The game was over from the start, because West scored more than five times that of Valencia’s girls, who scored only four points in the first quarter. West controlled the rest of the game and they did not even have to use their starters after the second half.

   Lani Lum (9) a forward for the team stated, “We took our opponents seriously and practiced hard, even though we knew we would probably win, we prepared for the harder teams.” West’s practice paid off as they completely controlled the pace of the game, which meant that Valencia could never gain a rhythm to score more than three consecutive points.

West easily closed out the game thanks their captain Kayla Sato (12) and their coach, Mike Caparaso. West’s next game is in the quarterfinals against Newbury Park. The girls’ basketball team must channel their momentum of this win and take down the Newbury Park Panthers on February 28th at West High School. Lum commented that their next game will be “pretty difficult” and that even though they are not too worried, they will “still have to practice like [they] are playing the best team in the world.” West will have to prepare extensively for their upcoming matches, because if they win their next game against Newbury, they may have to face Burroughs High School, the number one seed in the playoffs.