By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
ANAHEIM — Of all the Bishop Amat girls basketball championship teams this might have been the most blue-collar, hardest working of them all.
Without anyone near 6-feet, third-seed Bishop Amat pushed, shoved, tugged and frustrated top-seed Oak Park in Wednesday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 3A championship game at the Anaheim Arena, winning the school’s fifth girls basketball title since 1999 and first since 2006 with a convincing 44-30 victory.
Bishop Amat, who finished fourth in the difficult Del Rey League, will continue in the state playoffs next week after improving to 21-11 while Oak Park finishes 21-9.
It’s always difficult comparing championship teams, but this one seemed different than the others.
“Those other kids worked hard too, we didn’t win on accident,” Amat coach Richard Wiard explained in comparing his five champions. “But these kids have worked awful hard and they’re physical and don’t mind getting their nose dirty.
“They’re not as tall as the other groups and maybe we don’t have the division one players that we’ve had in past years, but that’s okay. A lot of effort can overcome that.” (To continue click thread).
Amat postgame celebration and trophy presentation