Leading up to this weekend’s women’s CIF Division 4 state championship game in Sacramento on Saturday, the La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) Torreys had some big plans. “Last season, we came up just a little bit short,” said LJCD?senior Kaylah Miller. “This time around, we plan on winning the state championship.” Unfortunately for top-seeded LJCD (27-5), once again it won’t be leaving for Northern California for at least another year after suffering a tough season-ending 68-58 loss to the second-seeded Windward Lady Wildcats (28-4) of Los Angeles in the Southern California Regional Finals played at Colony High School in Ontario on March 19. The Torreys held leads of 17-16 at the end of the first quarter, 29-26 at halftime and 46-44 at the end of the third quarter. “The experience that I’ve been able to have at Country Day and with Coach [Terri] Bamford has been amazing and I’ll always remember this,” Miller said. Miller finished with 11 points for LJCD, which was paced by Kelsey Plum’s 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Meanwhile, Maya Hood added 10 points, 12 rebounds and six steals and twin sister Malina had 12 points of her own for the Torreys. “The athletes who come through here and play at Country Day are really goal-oriented individuals and also are very much motivated to become the best possible basketball players that they can be,” said Bamford. “I think that a lot of them have the same big aspirations of competing in college basketball at the next level and that they do definitely understand all of the strong work ethic that’s involved with it and have a good, firm, grasp of what it takes to get from here to there.” Windward was led by Courtney Jaco’s 18 points, Jordin Canada’s 14 points and seven assists, Paris Baird’s 13 points, Kristen Simon’s 11 points and eight rebounds, and six-foot-seven-inch junior Imani Stafford’s nine points and 16 rebounds. LJCD had defeated the Lady Wildcats twice in December holiday tournaments, but Windward was without the services of Stafford in those two games.








