VILLA PARK — The Villa Park girls basketball team opened the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs with an emphatic, blowout victory over Palos Verdes, 71-50, on Thursday night at Villa Park High.
All five starters finished in double figures for the Spartans.
They were led by Bailey Roczey, Sabina Patel and Lauren Wolfe, who each scored 14 points. Madelyn Martinez added 13 points and Olivia Sturdivant finished with 10 points.
Spartans coach Brad Willis said his team was clicking on all cylinders from the opening tip.
“I think for the first time, probably in a couple weeks, we played like ourselves.” Willis said. “I could tell early on we were clicking because we were making our shots in the first quarter. We were passing the ball and sharing it really well early on.”
Villa Park (22-7) jumped out to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter with Roczey scoring seven points while controlling the boards.
“Our girls have really good chemistry, and when they’re on, they’re on,” Willis said. “It makes it tough for teams to play us because we can go to anybody at this point to make a shot. And they all have different skill sets. So it’s kind of amazing to be able to go, OK, what do we need? Do we need a post-up? Do we need a corner three? Do we need a pick and roll from the top? And we’re a really cohesive group that can adapt to the kind of situation that we’re in.”
The Spartans built a 14-point halftime lead by continuing to limit the Sea Kings to one-shot possessions and spacing the floor with nice ball movement that allowed Patel to knock down a pair of first-half 3s.
Palos Verdes (20-5) was led by Maddie Farnsworth, who scored 16 points, and Jenna Lee, who added 15 points.
The Sea Kings went on a 9-2 run late in the second quarter before Wolfe hit a couple of shots before halftime, including a last-second 3-pointer.
Villa Park hit eight shots from beyond the arc in the game.
“We had a size advantage so we just wanted to try to hold them to one shot,” Willis said. “And when Bailey’s getting, you know, double-digit rebounds, it makes her tougher to guard when, especially when she’s doing that as well as scoring. It just adds a whole other element to our team.”
Villa Park will be at Santa Margarita on Saturday for a second-round game.
The Eagles narrowly defeated the Spartans 51-48 earlier in the season, and Willis is looking forward to the rematch.
“We know them a little bit,” he said. “Obviously, it was early in the season when we played them, but we’re both in the Top 10, both in Orange County. The first time we had a close game with them, so I expect it’s going to be a tough battle, especially now that we have to go play them at their place.”
“I know it’s going to probably be a slugfest,” he added, “and that’s what you get in Division 1. You’re getting good teams at all times.”