Health & Fitness
Wheately, Bearcats Roll Over Diamond Ranch
Nikki Wheatley scores 23 of her 29 points in the second half as Bonita completes the season sweep of the Diamond Ranch Panthers
LA VERNE – Nikki Wheatley scored 23 of her 29 points in the second half as the Bonita Bearcats completed the season sweep of the visiting Diamond Ranch Panthers 62-45 Friday night in a key Hacienda League matchup. Bonita defeated Diamond Ranch 51-45 earlier this season.
“She (Wheatley) took over the game,” Diamond Ranch head coach Mike James said of the senior point guard. “She is so much quicker and stronger than everyone else on the floor.”
The loss puts Diamond Ranch two games behind Bonita, which secured sole possession of first place in the Hacienda League standing with five games to go.
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“We pretty much needed this win (to get a share of the league lead),” James said. “Now we will need help from a couple of other teams (for us to tie or win the league).”
Trailing 17-10 after the first quarter, the Panthers would claw back in the second quarter to outscore Bonita 14-7 to tie the score at 24-24 heading into halftime.
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Miscues and empty possessions by the Bearcats enabled Diamond Ranch to claw back into the game. After Rhys Northrup opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer to put the Bearcats ahead 20-10, Diamond Ranch went on a 12-2 run behind Cayla Freeman’s 6 points during the run to tie the game at 22-22.
Freeman finished with 12 points, four rebounds and a steal. Ty Lark tallied 14 points and seven rebounds, while Emilee Dy added 6 points for Diamond Ranch.
The Panthers, as long as the Bearcats each could have taken the significant lead in the first half, if not for missing free throws, especially in the second quarter where neither team could seem to get anything going.
“We hope that it (missing free throws) would not nip us in the bud,” James said, “but unfortunately it did.”
Wheately took over in the third quarter, scoring 10 of the Bearcats’ points in the quarter to give Bonita a 10 point lead. Diamond Ranch was able to close the gap to 33-31, but that is as close as the Panthers would get as Bonita ran away in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
“She took care of business tonight,” James said. “We weren’t able to take advantage of the opportunities that was given to us.”
Diamond Ranch (15-7, 6-2) hosts Diamond Bar (12-10, 4-3) next Wednesday. Tipoff time is at 5 pm.
BOX SCORES
BONITA (62) – Nikki Wheatley (29), Ariana Abo (12), Cassie Martinez (5), Stephanie Vana (4), Erin Hastings, Maya Gonzalez (3), Rhys Northrup (3), Nalah Massey (2)
DIAMOND RANCH (45) - Tai Lark (14), Cayla Freeman (12), Emilee Dy (6), Sydney Cabellon (5), Farrah Castillo (4), Catrina Freeman (2), Sarah Kretschmar (2)
