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Sports

Centaurs' Girls Defeat Santa Monica

The Culver City High girls basketball team improves to 2-0 in league.

Culver City High girls basketball head coach Julian Anderson couldn't have asked for a better start to Ocean League play. The Centaurs won their first two home games this week, including Friday night's triumph over Santa Monica.

"We played well, we played sharper than the last game," Anderson said. "We took control early and played a really strong first half."

The Centaurs were led by point guard Taylor Tanita, Jade Neal, Kristin Mitchell, Mithzy Hernandez, Taylor Sales and Markie Samler. Culver City took a 10-point lead into halftime and withstood several Santa Monica rallies in the second half to win by eight points.

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"We played hard and really good defense," said Samler, a senior guard. "We're so proud of ourselves for hustling and focusing."

"I just was in the zone and so focused on winning that I had to do what I had to do to get the team the win," added Neal, also a senior guard. "We stuck together at the end."

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Santa Monica (6-9 overall, 1-1 in league) won 23 games last season, losing to Santa Ana Mater Dei in the CIF Southern Section Division 1AA semifinals and again in the second round of the state playoffs. Culver City, however, beat the Vikings 62-56 on their home floor in the teams' first league meeting. Of course, this Samo squad is entirely different, having lost six players, including Moriah Faulk, Kristina Johnson and Bianka Balthazar, to graduation.

"I give a lot of credit to Culver City," Samohi Coach Marty Verdugo said. "They shot lights out and they made their free throws down the stretch. We played even with them in the second half and I thought we defended them pretty well for the most part, they were just hitting everything."

Culver City will try to remain in first place with games against defending champion Inglewood and Hawthorne next week before hosting archrival Beverly Hills on Jan. 25.

"It's really, really awesome, especially because of the fact that we lost to them last year at home," added Sale, also a senior guard. "It was really intense but we stuck through it, kept going and were mentally in it the whole game. I'm really proud of what our team accomplished tonight."

Culver City (11-6, 2-0) had opened Ocean League play with a 60-15 rout of visiting Morningside on Wednesday--a game in which Anderson emptied his bench.

"Yes, I got a chance to play everybody, which is a good thing, but we need to be more sharp and prepared," Anderson said after Wednesday's blowout win. "I didn't like the way we played. You have to approach every game the same and we didn't do that tonight."

The Centaurs were third in league last season (behind Inglewood and Santa Monica) and lost to San Gabriel 43-40 in the first round of the CIF Division 2A playoffs to finish with a 14-14 record. Anderson and his team expect better results this year.

"What do I take from this game? Most of all it's just learning how to stay consistent," senior forward Lunden Junious said after the victory over the Monarchs. "We've got to be able to keep our pace and not slow down to the other team's pace."

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