IRVINE — Moka Saiki had a record-breaking night for the Portola girls basketball team in a blowout win over Tesoro in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2A playoffs Thursday at Portola High.
The senior scored a school-record 41 points and made a record 9 3-pointers in the Bulldogs’ 82-41 win.
Saiki has every scoring record at Portola and surpassed 1,000 career points in December.
“At shootaround earlier today I had good shooting touch and I felt like it was going to be a good game,” Saiki said. “It’s not just me, it’s the whole team. I’m super proud of what we have done.”
Portola beats Tesoro 82-41 in the Division 2A playoffs. Moka Saiki had a school-record 41 points and made 9 3-pointers for Portola. Portola will play St. Mary’s Academy in the second round Saturday. @ocvarsity @PortolaAthDept @ocvarsityguy @latsondheimer @SteveFryer pic.twitter.com/JQk7AK1UOQ
— Michael Huntley (@mikehuntley63) February 10, 2023
“I see her play this well almost every day in practice,” Portola coach Brian Barham said of Saiki. “It’s always great when she can do it on the big stage and everyone can see the show.”
Saiki scored the first 15 points of the game for Portola (23-6), which had a 24-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Portola’s defense was the catalyst for its high-powered offense. The Bulldogs deployed a full-court press for the majority of the game and forced 13 turnovers by Tesoro (17-12) in the first half.
“The press was mainly to try and neutralize their great player, Celine Castaneda,” Barham said. “We knew she was going to play all 32 minutes and we wanted to try and wear her down.”
“We really worked on our conditioning this offseason and I think that has been reflected in our defense,” Saiki said.
Castaneda led Tesoro with 12 points. Sarah Bonsangue had nine points for the Titans and Avery Steinhardt added seven points and eight rebounds.
Tesoro was an at-large representative from the South Coast League.
Portola was shooting from 3-point range whenever it could. The Bulldogs made 16 of 44 3-point attempts. Emaleena Elson and Nina Saiki each made two 3-pointers and Kira Watanabe had 9 points.
The Bulldogs are one of the shorter teams in the division, but still managed to outrebound Tesoro 30-27.
Portola played in a tough Pacific Coast League with teams in higher playoff divisions like Woodbridge and Open Division foe Sage Hill.
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“Those guys really tested us,” Barham said, “and it helped us learn that if we don’t come out and fight every possession, we could lose.”
Portola will play at St. Mary’s Academy of Inglewood in the second round Saturday. St. Mary’s Academy had a first-round bye after winning the Camino Real League.
“Like everybody else in Southern California, they are going to be bigger than us, but we will guard the lower half the best that we can,” Barham said.