Bishop Diego stepped up in the third quarter and rallied to beat visiting La Reina, 33-28, in a Frontier League opener between top-10 girls basketball teams in Division 5A of the CIF-Southern Section.
The top-ranked Cardinals got 18 points from Julia De La Cruz and Mileyni Sanchez scored seven points all in the second half to key the victory over the No. 8 Regents.
Bishop started slow and fell behind 16-8 at halftime.
“It took us a while to adjust to not having Elliot Redkey (illness) tonight,” coach Jeff Burich said. “We picked up our defense in the second half. Citlali Morales did a great job on their leading scorer, shutting her out in the second half.”
The Cardinals (13-5, 1-0) outscored La Reina 14-3 in the third quarter and made five three-pointers in the second half, two by Sanchez and one from De La Cruz.
“We had a certain five that were getting the job done and it was hard not subbing them out,” Burich said. “La Reina cut it to 27-26 with four minutes to go but we scored the next six points, only giving up another basket when there was only four seconds left.
Sydney Naour and Lily Simolon grabbed key rebounds late in the game to seal the victory.
The Cardinals play at Cate on Thursday.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.