Lady Bears won an overtime thriller over Lady Falcons by the final of 55-50 and the Falcons boys team defeated the Bears Boys squad by the final of 61-44

The John Burroughs Bears Basketball teams split the double dip with the Crescenta Valley Falcons with the girl’s teams coming away with a five-point victory in overtime and the boy’s team suffering a 17-point defeat to CV. Mariam Fahs and Valentina Morales combined for 40 points in the win for the Lady Bears. Kiera Calaguas and Anik Nortikyan combined for 32 points in the loss for the Lady Falcons. Fresh off his 50-point performance back on Friday Night against the Glendale Nitros Vaughn Zagarian led Crescenta Valley with 50 points in the win over the Bears while Elliot Lawrence led the Bears with 10 points in the loss to CV. 

The girl’s contest began back on January 7th, but was paused due to a power outage caused by high winds. Prior to the resumption of the game, Crescenta Valley came off a 60-46 over Hart and Burroughs lost 55-34 against Oakwood in the first of a back-to-back. The game picked up with 1:19 left in overtime with Burroughs leading 52-48 and Calaguas at the free throw line. She nailed both of her foul shots to put the Lady Falcons within two. Jessica Mena came through in the clutch by recording a two-point layup to put Burroughs up by four. She then made one of two shots at the free-throw line to complete Burroughs’s five-point victory over CV. 

“Waiting this long to play the rest of it was tough but we did the best we could to prepare. All the girls executed down the stretch and I was proud of that,” said Vikki Oganyan. Oganyan stated that good players make the winning plays when it’s needed when asked about Mariam Fahs’s buzzer-beating two-point shot to force overtime along with admitting that Jessica Mena made winning shots at the right time when also asked about her clutch layup and free throw shot in overtime. 

“The effort was always excellent for the Lady Falcons. They showed up in the loss even though we had to pick up with 1:19 seconds in overtime,” said Michael Flot. Flot admitted that Kiera Calaguas had a great game even though “the ball didn’t go our way.”

In the original game, Mena, Izzy Amoroso, and Valentina Morales started the first quarter with an 8-0 scoring run for the Lady Bears. The Lady Falcons closed the gap by going on a 6-0 scoring run as Anik Nortikyan and Calaguas chipped in with the offense. Burroughs continued to have momentum throughout the first quarter and ended the opening period by leading 13-8 over Crescenta Valley. 

Yashvi Ahir made it a three-point game with a tear-drop two-point basket to start the second quarter. Isabella Amayakyan and Morales both scored back-to-back two-point baskets to increase the Lady Bear lead to seven points. Although the second quarter was a low-scoring for both teams Burroughs continued to be out in front by five at the halftime break. 

Following halftime the Lady Bears and Falcons had a high-scoring third quarter. Mariam Fah’s two-point layup saw Lylah Dunlavey respond with a three-point basket though the Lady Bears were still out in front 32-26. Calaguas hit a two-point shot to beat the buzzer to make it a four-point game heading into the final quarter. 

The Lady Falcons started the fourth quarter with back-to-back scores to tie the game at 32. Amelia Parmentier nailed both of her foul shots to start the fourth quarter and then Kelin Shajanian tied it with a two-point basket. Fahs and Calaguas both traded baskets to tie the score at 34 until Shajanian nailed a clutch three-point shot to give the Falcons a 37-34 lead. Both teams continued to battle it out with points and when the Lady Bears had their backs against the wall in the final seconds in the fourth quarter. Mariam Fahs stepped up. She scored to tie the game at 48 with a two-point buzzer-beating shot to force overtime. 

The Burroughs Lady Bears improved their record to 14-8 overall, 2-0 in Pacific League play, and the Crescenta Valley Lady Falcons dropped to 11-7 overall and 1-1 in Pacific League play. Both teams will return to the court on Saturday, January 25th with CV taking on cross-town rival Hoover at Hoover High School at 5:15 p.m. and Burroughs will play at the Grant High School Showcase against a team to be determined later. 

The Boy’s teams finally got to play the game to conclude the night, as they were also postponed on January 7. Crescenta Valley came off an 88-57 victory over Glendale. Vaughn Zargarian came off a 50-point performance against the Nitros and Burroughs got handed a 41-point loss by El Camino Real at the MLK Preview by the Beach showcase. 

The second half was all Falcons but the Bears had no hope of closing the gap with the game being in favor of CV the entire evening. “Playing on the road is hard and I always tell people there might be a disparity in the Pacific League at the end of the year but I liked how we defended in the first half. We had a sloppy third quarter defensively and in the end, we got the win,” said Falcons head coach Shawn Zargarian. Zargarian admitted that both he and his son Vaughn will go out into the sunset together at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 season. He also added that Vaughn scoring 35 points without scoring a three-point shot is pretty impressive. 

“We had some positive moments throughout the game but in the end, the boys never gave up in the game even though we lost by 17,” said Bears head coach Darryl Carter. Carter also said that Elliot Lawrence and Nicolas Meza are starting to know their roles and he likes where things are going for them. 

Crescenta Valley improves to 13-7 overall and 2-0 in Pacific League play and Burroughs falls to 5-14 overall and 0-2 in Pacific League play. The Falcons will take on League rival Hoover on Saturday, January 25th on the road at 6:45 p.m. and Burroughs will return to the court on Monday, January 27th to take on a star-studded Arcadia team at home with tip-off scheduled for 6:45 p.m.