The Rialto girls’ basketball team gets off to a quick start, beating La Habra in the Division 4AA Quarterfinals game – Orange County Register

LA HABRA — The team of La Habra girls basketball coach Jet Julian threw everything but the kitchen sink defensively at Rialto and used doubles, presses and traps on Wednesday to get the ball out of Carrington Davis’ hands and prevent that he arrives Khamiyah Anderson.

The plan might have worked for the Highlanders if Rialto sniper Destiny Rabino hadn’t had the hottest hand in the gym.

Rabino, a 5ft 7 rookie, confidently rolled her first three shots from behind the arc, knocked down three more 3-pointers in the game and finished with 18 points as the Knights wire-to-wire a 65-57 win scored over La Habra in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA Quarterfinals game.

“They didn’t know she was my secret weapon,” Rialto coach Robert Goodloe said of Rabino. “Everyone knows Carrington and Khamiyah because they were our big two. I knew (La Habra) would be after those two, so we headed to Destiny early. And she produced.”

Davis finished the game with 23 points and nine rebounds, while Anderson hit a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds for the second-seeded Knights (26-2), who will head to the High Desert on Saturday to kick in one Semi-final match against Silverado (20-2).

Rabino pocketed those three deep balls in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game and Davis pocketed another 3-pointer to give Rialto an early 12-2 advantage.

“I heard the taunts before the game,” Rabino said of La Habra’s student squad cheering whenever a Rialto player missed a shot during the warm-up session. “I was feeling pretty good warming up, so I felt confident when I was making those shots in the game.”

Davis followed Rabino’s hot start by scoring 10 straight points to help the Knights extend the lead to 21-5, with 1:04 remaining in the first quarter. However, La Habra (17-14) prevented an early break and ended the half with a 9-0 run to move up to 21-14.

Rialto opened the second quarter with an 8-0 run to rebuild a double-digit lead it maintained into the late stages of the game.

“In some games that we played, we started slow and had to catch up,” said Davis, a sophomore point guard who leads the team with 24.1 points per game. “It was very important today that we could start hot and get them chasing us.”

Pressure from La Habra caused Rialto some trouble at times, but full-court pressing wasn’t used often as the Highlanders managed just 10 of 31 shots in the first half. La Habra tried to capitalize on Rialto’s zone defense but only made 3 of 19 from behind the arc at halftime.

Rialto led by 16 early in the fourth quarter, but La Habra found his shot and reduced the deficit to 55-48 with 2:58 on the clock. The Highlanders scored 25 points in the final third, seven each from Kennadi Cauley and Hannah Green.

Davis and Yamileth Perez each scored four points in the last three minutes to help Rialto put the finishing touches on the win.

Cauley and Green finished on 20 and 12 points, respectively, leading La Habra and freshman Ashley Miller had 12 rebounds.