The #3 Arroyo Grande girls basketball team fell to #1 Bakersfield in the CIF-Central Section division one championship game, 53-43.
An early 9-0 run by the Drillers was capped off with a long three-pointer from Alexis Killebrew, putting Bakersfield up 13-4. The Eagles responded with a 5-0 run of their own at the end of the first quarter as Kaiya Ellison splashed home a three, cutting the deficit to four.
The second quarter, however, belonged to Bakersfield as the Drillers scored 14 straight points, ballooning their lead to 29-15 at the break.
The Eagles continued to battle in the third, cutting the deficit back to single digits after a three from Katey Cramer trimmed Bakersfield’s lead to just nine, but every time Arroyo Grande gained some momentum, the Drillers responded emphatically. A 7-0 run topped off by another three from Killebrew made it 45-29.
In the fourth AG threw one last punch as Ellison knocked down the corner three, cutting the deficit to just eight, but it was too little, too late for the Eagles.
With a top-two finish in the division, the Eagles are guaranteed a spot in the state playoffs, and they’ll find out their seeding over the weekend.
