The Flintridge Prep varsity girls’ basketball team is headed back to a CIF Southern Section championship following a 45-40 victory over host Oxford Academy of Cypress in a Division 3A semifinal last Saturday.
The Rebels overcame a 10-point deficit in the first quarter and dominated in the second half to come away with a big win and clinch their second championship berth in the past three years. Flintridge Prep will travel to Ontario to face No. 1 seed Beverly Hills at Colony High School this Saturday at 6 p.m.
Prep co-head coach Kevin Kiyomura credits the girls’ willingness to learn and adapt on the fly.
“The maturation process went a lot quicker than we had anticipated,” said Kiyomura, who guided the Rebels to a CIF-SS championship in 2016. “They basically just said what do we need to do, and they’re doing everything exactly the way we’re telling them to do it. The best thing is that they’re doing it together and for each other. They’re reaping the benefits of playing that way.”
Kaitlyn Chen led the Rebels (24-5 overall record) with 20 points, and Sofia Gonzalez added 10 points. Alex Kyriakakis netted seven points, and Maddy Manning and Andie Kim finished with four points each.
