LA CANADA — Flintridge Prep senior Ashley Chea admitted she was a little nervous before her team’s CIF-Southern Section second-round playoff game against Corona del Mar.
Chea said she thinks those nerves rubbed off on her younger teammates to start the game. But that slow start was erased by a fast finish, led by Chea, and the Wolves defeated CdM 57-46 on Saturday night.
The Wolves (26-2) advance to the 3AA quarterfinals. They’ll play at Sunny Hills on Wednesday, Feb. 15
Chea, who’s headed to Princeton next year, scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had at least five assists to help the Wolves move on in the playoffs.
“I think that me being the only senior they look up to me in a way,” Chea said about her younger teammates. “So if I’m nervous they will be too. But also they’re super-young. We have a super-young team. I think the nerves that came were there because they care. And that’s all I could ever ask for.”
Flintridge Prep coach Jayme Kiyomura Chan said another reason for nerves was that this was their first playoff game. The Wolves had a first round bye.
“Now that they have a game under their belt I think they’ll be ok,” Chan said of her players.
Flintridge Prep starts two freshmen, a sophomore and a junior along with Chea. The four players who came off the bench are all underclassmen. One of the freshmen starters is Maddie Smith. She was the game’s second-leading scorer with 21 points. She also had eight rebounds.
Chea and Smith combined for 16 of the Wolves’ 18 points in the fourth quarter as they surged past Corona del Mar (17-12). The Sea Kings trimmed a nine-point deficit, 30-21, early in the third quarter to just two at 39-37 to start the final period. But that’s when Chea and Smith went to work.
Smith scored on a layup early in the fourth to give Flintridge Prep a four-point lead at 41-37. Corona del Mar wouldn’t go away and trailed 44-41 about halfway through the quarter when Chea scored…
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