Warriors win Tri-City Holiday Invitational girls basketball tournament

Fallbrook High School's girls basketball team won the Dec. 28-30 Tri-City Holiday Invitational tournament.

"The tournament win was pretty special," said Fallbrook coach Dan Bachman.

In 2014, Fallbrook won the consolation championship of the Tri-City Holiday Invitational after winning the championship of the River Valley Shootout tournament in Arizona. The plans for Fallbrook to participate in the 2015 River Valley Shootout were cancelled. "It was going to be missing too much school," Bachman said.

That gave the 2015-16 Warriors only two games prior to the Tri-City Holiday Invitational. "Normally coming into the holiday tournament we have a few more games under our belt," Bachman said.

Bachman alters his starting lineup based on the formation most suitable for the Warriors' opponent. Eight of his girls started games during the first month of the current season: four seniors, one junior, one sophomore, and one freshman. During the 2014-15 season, six of his girls were considered starters; five of those were seniors and one was a junior who opted to focus on other sports for 2015-16.

The Warriors opened their season Dec. 9 with a 68-50 home victory over San Pasqual. "We shot the ball extremely well in that particular ball game," Bachman said.

Fallbrook held a 41-24 lead at halftime. Three Fallbrook players scored in double figures: sophomore Sara Ahmadpour was successful on six three-point shots and led the Warriors with 18 points; junior Jaycee Rubalcava scored 16 points including nine from three shots beyond the three-point line, and senior Colleen Murphy contributed 13 points. The nine points scored by freshman Janay Segura were the result of three successful three-point attempts.

"It was nice to win our first game out of the chute," Bachman said.

Bachman started two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior, and a senior in Fallbrook's Dec. 16 game at Sage Creek, a third-year school currently with no seniors. The Warriors captured a 60-30 victory. "We were able to run our offenses," Bachman said.

Sage Creek had an 11-10 lead after the first period. "There were a lot of jitters," Bachman said, noting not only that the varsity experience is new for the freshmen and those on the 2014-15 junior varsity but that the additional playing time is an adjustment for last season's varsity reserves.

A 21-5 scoring advantage in the second quarter gave the Warriors a 31-16 halftime lead. Fallbrook was ahead by a 45-22 margin after three periods. Eleven different Fallbrook players scored points with Kyra Dahlke leading the team with 12 points and Rubalcava contributing 11 points.

Fallbrook opened Tri-City Holiday Invitational play Dec. 28 with a contest at Guajome Park against Clairemont High School of San Diego. The 45-14 Fallbrook victory included a 17-2 lead after the first quarter, a 28-9 halftime lead, and a third quarter in which the Warriors scored all 11 points. "We won that game quite handily," Bachman said. "The defense was very good."

Ahmadpour made six shots from behind the three-point line and had a total of 20 points while freshman Cali Southwell had 10 points including six from a pair of three-point buckets.

Both of Fallbrook's Dec. 29 games were at Guajome Park. The game against Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia began at 11 a.m. and ended as a 52-32 Fallbrook victory. The Warriors outscored the Kares by margins of 10-3 in the first period, 9-7 in the second quarter, 15-12 in the third period, and 18-10 in the fourth quarter. "We gauged the team and then we kind of got the comfort zone," Bachman said.

Ahmadpour scored 15 points, all from three-point shots, against Rio Hondo.

Pilobos High School, which is in Los Angeles, was Fallbrook's opponent for the Dec. 29 game which began at 6:30 p.m. The Warriors obtained a 63-34 triumph against the Eagles.

"That was our best game to that point of the year," Bachman said.

"We really focused on one of their players and shut her down," Bachman said. "We really did a good job defensively on what we considered their top player."

That player was held to three points. Ahmadpour scored eight points, and so did Rubalcava and Murphy, while Southwell led the team with 14 points. Nine of the 11 Warriors who scored against Pilobos had at least four points. Fallbrook had leads of 19-10 after the first period, 38-18 at halftime, and 51-24 after the third quarter.

"It was nice in the semifinals of the tournament to play our top basketball," Bachman said.

The Dec. 30 championship match between Fallbrook and St. Margaret's of San Juan Capistrano was played at Pacific Ridge High School. "It was a tight game," Bachman said.

Fallbrook had a 15-10 lead after the first period, and each team scored nine points in the second quarter. The Tartans were led in the first half by senior guard Natalia Ohanesian, who scored 19 of the team's 24 points. Ohanesian was held to three points in the second half. "We did a good job adjusting," Bachman said.

As a team, the Tartans were held to four points in the third period and two points in the fourth quarter.

"We really stressed at halftime to communicate with one another on defense," Bachman said. "We pulled away in the second half and won by 25."

Fallbrook's 55-30 victory included 13 points in the third quarter and 14 points in the final period.

"We continued to progress throughout the tournament and played better and better as the tournament went on," Bachman said.

Murphy scored 15 points in the final and was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship game while Ahmadpour was honored with the all-tournament team designation.

The tournament championship also gave the Warriors a 6-0 record for the calendar year 2015 portion of the season. "We'll use it as a springboard for the rest of the season," Bachman said. "Hopefully we build on the confidence that we've gained already this season and continue to perform."