San Dieguito Mustangs win girls basketball championship

The San Dieguito Academy High School girls basketball team won the CIF Division II championship with a 48-45 victory over Eastlake on June 12.

In the championship game, junior Piper Ligotti led the way with 14 points, followed by sophomore Quinn O’Donnell who put in 10, including a trio of three-pointers. Junior Ruby Willard had 14 rebounds.

The Mustangs went 15-6 on the season.

“This team is special, they stayed positive and banded together playing for each other despite the many challenges of this season including having very low numbers (7-8 players for most of the season), stepping into bigger roles with only four returners from our 2019-20 team, managing playing multiple CIF sports in the same season and almost all of them fighting through nagging injuries throughout the season and playoffs,” said Coach Aubree Smithey. “We were able to accomplish what we did this year because every single kid contributed to the team and excelled in their roles. They did it together as a team, night in and night out.”

Ruby Willard was the team’s leading scorer with 17 points per game while also pulling down 9 rebounds per game,

Smithey said Piper Ligotti “stuffed the stat sheet on a nightly basis” averaging 12 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals per game.

Sophomore Quinn O’Donnell was the team’s third leading scorer averaging 11 points per game.

The championship roster included seniors Madeline Moe and Mia Milne, sophomore Adison Fisher and freshman Rachel Buczek and Anya Gibson.

The SDA champions raise the trophy.

(Courtesy)