All those running exercises that were required during practices paid off for The Bishop’s School girls basketball team last Saturday morning in the form of a CIF championship at the University of San Diego. Gizelle Studevant (25 points) and Inga Orekhova (23 points) led the way, as Bishop’s (29-2) built an early fourth-quarter lead, then hung on with a 71-63 victory over Mater Dei Catholic to claim the Division IV title. In securing their 15th straight win, the Lady Knights also guaranteed themselves a first-round home game in this week’s state playoffs, which got under way on Tuesday (March 10). While Mater Dei Catholic (26-3) would not go away, despite falling behind 67-49 with just over five minutes remaining in the game, the Lady Crusaders seemed a step behind their opponents for much of the game. “Our coaches run us a lot in practice,” Studevant said. “I guess our biggest weakness is that we seem to get too comfortable when we have a big lead.” Holding an 18-point lead with 5:06 left in the game, Bishop’s watched Mater Dei go on a 14-4 run before it was all said and done. “I told the girls when we called timeout in the last minute (Bishop’s led 69-61 with :53 remaining) to just calm down and be patient,” Bishop’s head coach Marlon Wells said. “We didn’t expect Mater Dei to quit.” Mater Dei got the deficit down to six points, but Studevant calmly sank a pair of free throws to ice the game. Studevant, who missed some attempts at the line earlier in the game, said she was relieved to see those final two shots go in. While Studevant, who heads off to Penn State when her Bishop’s days are done, was hitting her field goal attempts for the most part, Orekhova was proving deadly from the outside (three 3-pointers) and inside. After sitting out last season’s CIF championship with a knee injury that eventually led to surgery, the Northwestern-bound senior said the CIF crown was very satisfying. “It (the championship) meant a lot,” Orekhova commented. “Yes, the coaches run us,” she grinned when asked how much the team’s conditioning played a factor in the win. “Everybody participated in this victory, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.” After watching rival La Jolla Country Day School capture the title for a number of years, the win was very satisfying for Wells and his entire staff. “My assistant coaches helped out a lot,” Wells said. “This is a huge victory for our program.” Commenting on the play of his two leading scorers on the day, Wells noted, “Inga and Gizelle have stepped it up for us all year.” Brianna Martinez also had a big game for Bishop’s, scoring 11 points and hauling down nine rebounds. Jhazmine Lynch paced Mater Dei with 22 points. Bishop’s advanced in the state playoffs with a 74-55 victory March 10 over Santa Maria St. Joseph.