Lady Bruins Look to Repeat History

For the first time in 20 years, the Long Beach Wilson Lady Bruins basketball team is headed to the division championship game. The last time the program played in the finals was in 2000, when they won the Division 1AA title. They are hoping for the same results again this year.

The Lady Bruins (24-8), led by fourth-year head coach Erin Carey, will take on Eisenhower of Rialto (26-4) at 2 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 29). The Division 3A championship game will be played at Godinez High School in Santa Ana. Win or lose, there will still be more basketball to be played, as the team has earned a spot in the state playoff tournament as well.

[Editor's Note 3/1/20: The Lady Bruins defeated Eisenhower 66-62 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 20.]

“I have been working very hard on changing the culture and working on the intangibles, getting the girls to be a family, succeed in the classroom, be polite and carry themselves like young ladies and I have an amazing group right now. They are a true team and they play that way,” Coach Carey said when asked about the team’s success this year.

Reaching the finals this year was quite the turnaround for a team that didn’t finish with a winning record and failed to make the playoffs in last year’s campaign. Hampered by injuries and game inexperience, the young Lady Bruins struggled to a 7-18 record. But the team stayed together, they trained hard, they got better and injuries healed. Now they are playing the best basketball the program has seen in years.

Coach Carey knew what kind of team she had, she scheduled up and took the tough games. Wilson’s MaxPreps (maxpreps.com) strength of schedule was second highest in their division. They played on the road, a lot. Of the 16 non-league games, two were played in the Wilson gym. The Lady Bruins played in three tournaments in December, reaching the finals in two of them and ultimately winning the championship at the Larry Doyle & Dan Wiley Tournament of Champions at Marina High School on December 28.

Carey was prepping the team for the tough Moore League games that were ahead. The Lady Bruins turned a 5-7 Moore League record in 2018-19 into an 8-4 record this year. The battle-tested Bruins finished league play in third, behind perennial power Poly (12-0) and Millikan (9-3). With this year’s noticeable turnaround, Coach Carey was selected Moore League Coach of the Year.

When recently asked about the strength of the league, Carey said, “The Moore League is an extremely tough league. I love how competitive it is, it gets us ready for CIF and the games we are seeing now. It has been about Poly and Millikan for a long time and now Wilson is letting people know what we are about and the league is going to look different now.”

Led on the court by junior guard Ashley Hawkins (19.5 points per game) Wilson also gets scoring help from senior forward Samiya Terry (9.4 ppg), junior forward Arielle Hines (9 ppg) and junior center Jasmine Stone (8.5 ppg). On the defensive side of the ball, Wilson is anchored by sophomore guard Sydney Ross (4 steals and 4.5 rebounds per game), who Coach Carey calls “one of the fastest high school basketball players in Southern California.”

Hawkins, who recently joined the 1,000 point club for career scoring, talked about playing in the championship game, “I feel so proud and happy to be going to the championship game. It’s always been a goal of mine and now it seems like the work I’ve been putting in, as well as the work the girls and coaching staff have put in is paying off. I am looking forward to playing for the title because the pressure and the excitement is one of the reasons I play. I love playing [basketball] and competing to be the best!”

The Lady Bruins play an up-tempo style that not many teams can match. They push the ball up the court quickly on offense and pressure full-court on defense. They play with passion and purpose and have picked up their intensity in the playoffs with an average margin of victory of 32.5 points. The team is gelling and playing its best basketball down the stretch, riding a five game winning streak and having won 11 of their last 12 games.

The future is bright for the girls’ basketball program at Wilson. For the first time in years, the program has three teams (varsity, junior varsity and freshman). The team will graduate three seniors this year, one starter (Terry) and two reserves, Kalasia Levine (5.2 ppg) and Nylah Hines (co-captain), while returning three First Team All Moore League selections (Hawkins, A. Hines and Ross).

When asked about the future of Lady Bruin basketball, Carey said, “Wilson is a great school, we are building our legacy and the time is now. One step at a time, we have to invest in the process and build our lower levels up. I am excited to see what the future holds for the Lady Bruins and I am humbled and honored to be a part of it.”

They are not looking past Saturday though, there is still work to be done this year. And if the girls bring their best game Saturday, history may just repeat itself 20 years later.