Girls Basketball: Eagles Top Franklin, Turn Attention Toward Playoffs

Freshman Judith Espinoza scored a career-high 24 points, and junior Aaliyah Tihanyi added 16 to lead Eagle Rock to a 65-42 victory over Franklin on Friday night in the regular season finale for both teams.

Espinoza had 17 in the first half and Tihanyi scored 10 as the Eagles built a commanding 36-17 halftime lead.

“A lot of us are coming off of injuries,” Tihanyi said. “We had three starters sitting for a while. To play together (after) not practicing for a long time really means a lot. Today we knew what we had to get done and we’re just getting ready for playoffs next week.”

Eagle Rock (18-7, 7-3 in the Northern League) will wait until Saturday’s CIF-Los Angeles City Section playoff meeting to see where it gets seeded. The Eagles have been ranked No. 2 in Division III throughout the season and anything less would be a huge disappointment.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Eagle Rock coach Mark Kramer. “There’s a lot of good teams in our division, though Monroe is the clear favorite. There’s not gonna be any cakewalks through (the playoffs) for anybody.”

Eagle Rock will play at home at 7 p.m. next Friday if it gets its expected No. 2 seed in in the Div. III bracket.

Franklin (6-7, 4-6 in the NL) also expects to be playing in next week’s playoffs.

 “We’re playing up and down basketball right now,” said first-year Franklin coach Cressida Mia Guaniao. “We’re not a cohesive team right now. We’re not playing to our potential.”

Guaniao said the Panthers have played well at times, “but when it comes to Eagle Rock we have a mental block. We have a week to get it together and after that I think we’ll do fine. I’m looking forward to the playoffs.”

Part of the hex that Eagle Rock continued to hold over Franklin was due to the hot hand of Espinoza, who appears to be playing her best basketball of the season.

“She had 23 in the last game (a 59-34 win over Lincoln),” Kramer said. “So she’s had back-to-back big games.”

Espinoza has improved on her tendency of getting into early foul trouble.

“Today was a better, controlled effort from her,” Kramer said. “She’s just a good scorer. And we have a lot of other scorers around her.”

For Eagle Rock senior co-captain Jessica Loya, who scored eight and pulled down 12 rebounds against Franklin, the playoffs represent her last hurrah in high school basketball.

“It’s the start of the best part of our season,” Loya said. “We just want to go out there and play our hardest and go for that championship.”