Girls’ basketball aims to make playoffs after patchy start
Manny Lopez/ The Samohi
Nylah Bennett (’25) drives down the court in 23-35 home loss to the El Segundo Eagles.
The girls’ basketball team had a disappointing year last year, notching only four wins in regular season play and just falling short of the playoffs. This year’s team however is more experienced, having a large portion of last year’s roster returning for the season. With one of the largest senior classes in recent years, head coach Lance Radford is hopeful the team will find more success than last year.
“We have almost everybody back. We have seven or eight seniors. So we are going to rely on that experience that we got last year,” Radford said. “We are hungry to build on what we did last year.”
Co-captains Kyla Cotton (’25) and Maya Allshouse (’25) along with Sophia Miranda-Morales (’25) are three of the pivotal returning seniors on Samo’s roster.
“We have a strong group of seniors that have the ability to do something special this year,” Radford said.
Allshouse, a strong defensive force, playmaker and natural leader, plays a key role in the Vikings’ backcourt alongside Priya Mevasse (’26). Kalea Oshidari (’26), in company with sharp-shooting seniors Miranda-Morales and Cotton make up the core of the Vikings’ offense. The Vikings’ weak points are their size and ability to control the game, as Radford points out.
“Our focus has to be defensively. We have to be able to control the score. We have to be able to stop people, and especially stop people with size,” Radford said.
The Vikings will no longer travel to the beach cities of the South Bay for their league matchups. Instead, the team will trek inland to play Centennial (Compton), Inglewood, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Leuzinger. Like many of the other Samo sports, girls’ basketball transferred leagues from Bay League to Ocean League.
“The Bay League was super competitive. It was a challenge for us going against teams that were more experienced than what we had last year. We had a lot of JV girls come up,” Radford said. “It'll still be competitive, but we will match up very well with the Ocean League opponents.”
CIF made changes beyond league realignments. The playoff system for girls’ basketball is different this year, placing less emphasis on league play and expanding the lottery system. This means that teams may not know if they have made the playoffs until their last game. Radford, an AP statistics teacher by day, made it clear the girls’ goal is to punch a ticket to playoffs, and coming back with an experienced, star-studded roster, it doesn’t seem too far out of the realm of possibility.
“Our expectation is to make the playoffs,” Radford said.
The Vikings are currently 3-5. All three of their wins came at home, defeating Crenshaw 53-39 on Nov. 18, YULA 50-30 on Dec. 5 and Notre Dame Academy 47-35 on Dec. 6. Their next home game is on Jan. 15 against Leuzinger.