Bears 14-0 first-quarter scoring run helped set the tone early in the victory 

In the Head Coaching debut of Darryl Carter, the John Burroughs Bears come away with a dominant 55-39 victory over the Northridge Academy Pumas. The Pumas came off a 71-40 win over Monroe on Monday, November 18th. 

Burroughs kicked off the 2024-2025 season while entering this season with a super young roster with no seniors, as this Bears team is a junior and sophomore-heavy unit. 

Burroughs finished last season with a 15-14 overall record while having a 6-8 record in Pacific League play with a trip to the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs and dropping to Costa Mesa 77-86 in the opening round of the postseason. 

The Bears began the first quarter with a 14-0 scoring run with Elliot Lawrence, Owen Everhart, Evan Lanier, and Nicolas Meza all helping contribute to the scoring run. The Pumas got on the board with Sean Mutuca scoring the basket while getting fouled and converting the three-point play at the free-throw line to make the score 14-3. Everhart and Anthony Indzhikushyan both traded two-point baskets with Burroughs leading 16-5 at the end of the first quarter. 

Indzhikushyan started the scoring for Northridge Academy in the second quarter by hitting a three-point shot to help close the gap on the Bears but Evan Baker responded with a three-point basket of his own to make the score 19-8. Landon Lake helped the Pumas cut the lead to nine points with a two-point shot. Burroughs, however, continued to pull away in the second quarter as Nathan Rodriguez recorded two three-point shots in the quarter to help give Burroughs a 29-14 lead heading into the halftime break. 

Evan Baker, and Owen Everhart helped the Bears break the game open at the start of the third quarter to give Burroughs a 16-point lead. The Pumas ended the third quarter trailing by six as Anthony Indzhikushyan hit a clutch three-point shot in hopes of sparking a comeback attempt for Northridge Academy. 

Lawrence and Lanier got the scoring going for the Bears at the start of the fourth quarter with Lawrence hitting a two-point hook shot on the first possession of the final period with Lanier hitting back-to-back three-point shots to basically end the Pumas comeback hopes.

“It was an amazing team win, our guys brought our beliefs into our system and got ourselves into full gear,” said Bears rookie head coach Darryl Carter. Carter admitted that the team would blow leads during spring, summer, and fall league games but the boys understood what it took to win games. 

Burroughs improves to 1-0 on the season while Northridge Academy falls to 1-1 on the season. Northridge Academy will return to action on Saturday, November 23rd, and take on Castaic at the North Hollywood High School Varsity Showcase at 4:30 p.m. while Burroughs will attempt to go off to a 2-0 start when they host Canoga Park on Friday, November 22nd with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m.