Overtime Struggles Doom South Pasadena in Loss to Rosemead

In a back-and-forth non-league game that went into overtime on Monday, the girls basketball team fell to Rosemead by a score of 51-45.

With four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 45, junior guard Victoria Pallares missed the 3-pointer to take the lead but the Tigers were able to get the rebound to maintain possession.

Panthers’ sophomore Sydney Hua had a chance to win the game after stealing the ball, and somehow the 5-foot-2 guard weaved through several defenders in the key but missed the lay-up to win the game. South Pasadena junior center Malika Murphy grabbed the rebound but was fouled by sophomore forward Wen Zeng with .4 seconds left in the final quarter.

As both teams were in bonus, Murphy then found herself at the line with a chance to win the game. But Murphy missed, and the game went into overtime.

Rosemead (7-11) held off the Tigers’ attack in overtime, holding South Pasadena to zero points. The Panthers only managed four points during the two minute extra period, but it was enough to eke out the win.

“We played bad. We didn’t play well at all. We probably had more turnovers in the first half than we’ve been averaging in home games,” South Pasadena coach Rich Kitigawa said. “I thought we did okay on the press and forced them to do some things but didn’t get the calls we wanted.”

The first half saw several turnovers and some sloppy play on behalf of both teams but South Pasadena (11-6) was able to hold onto the lead.

The Tigers outscored Rosemead 19-10 in the second quarter, and they entered halftime with a 30-19 lead.

But the second half was a different story.

In the third quarter, South Pasadena was held to two points via a jumper from senior guard Kay Huang. But because of their strong second quarter, the Tigers still held a 32-31 lead at the start of the final period.

Hua had a busy second half, scoring 16 of the visiting team’s 28 points and 12 of their 16 fourth quarter points.

“I was very, very pleased with their performance,” Panthers coach Jay Gauthier said of his squad. “We had underachieved a little bit and were trying to get our level up so I was really happy [with] the way we came back and adjusted in the second half.”

Kitigawa was visibly upset and blamed the loss on the whole team being unprepared and for underestimating its opponent.

“They have a losing record. They’re barely beating teams that we beat by 30 and I think we read too much into that and didn’t come prepared,” he said. “We didn’t have that fire and I told my kids that [Rosemead] would fight back. They’re well coached and they played hard the whole game and we didn’t. They kept fighting and we ended up on the short end of it.”

South Pasadena will resume Rio Hondo League play when they travel to Temple City on Wednesday at 5:15 p.m.