The Agoura girls basketball team shocked Gahr, the No. 1 seed, to win the CIF-Southern Section Division 3AAA championship, 60-39, on Wednesday afternoon at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Kim Jacobs, a junior guard, scored 30 points, including six 3-point shots, leading the Agoura girls program to its first CIF title.
The Chargers, under first-year coach Conley Oliver, will now proceed to the state tournament, as will Gahr. Conley took over for Steve Scifres after last season when Scifres took the job as the Agoura boys coach. Scifres led the Chargers to the title game in 2010 as Agoura went 30-2.
Agoura (21-11) came out of the gates quickly, building a 21-4 lead after the first quarter. The Gladiators, from Cerritos, never threatened the Chargers thereafter. Jacobs had 10 points in the quarter.
Jacobs added five more points in the second quarter, helping stake the Chargers to a 32-17 lead.
Although Gahr had some momentum at the end of the second quarter, cutting the Chargers' lead from 20 to 15 points, a 3-point shot by Jacobs and a conventional three-point play by junior point guard Noam Leead to start the third quarter quickly took the wind out of the Gladiators' sails
By then end of the third quarter Jacobs had 24 points and Agoura had built a 50-29 lead.
When Jacobs hit two 3-pointers in the first 1:05 of the fourth quarter to give the Chargers a commanding 56-30 lead, the final 6:55 was a celebration-in-waiting for Agoura and its fans.
Jacobs was 12-29 from the field and 6-15 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Ghar (22-9) will have to settle for the possibility of seeing Agoura again in the Southern California regionals, largely because early in the game its standout player Jewelyn Sawyer simply wasn't able to keep the Gladiators in the game.
Sawyer, who will play at Long Beach State next year, was stymied in the first half by Agoura's defense. She finished with 23 points.
Gahr shot 28.9 percent from the field and made only 1 of 18 3-point attempts.
Agoura caused numerous turnovers, scoring 24 points off of them. The Chargers also had a 45-24 rebounding advantage over the Gladiators.
Agoura got a strong performance from Sydney Bennett, one of five seniors on the Chargers' roster, as well as from juniors Leead, Gigi Olelewe and Brittany Mazal.
Leead was one of the Agoura players who endured injuries over the course of the season. She missed almost two months with stress fractures in her legs.
Agoura defeated the No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds along the way to earning the CIF title. The Chargers were the 15th-seed in Division 3AAA.
Agoura beat Beaumont in the opening round of the playoffs, 62-41, and then edged Sonora, 42-40, in the second round. Both games were played on the road.
The Chargers finally played a home playoff game against Glendora in the quarterfinals and won, 59-44, on Feb. 20.
The Chargers survived an overtime battle with El Dorado in the semifinals, 41-36, when El Dorado missed two free throws at the end of regulation that could have won the game on its home court.
After the win Wednesday afternoon over Ghar, Agoura High's Principal Larry Misel was there to accept the plaque given to Coach Oliver and the Agoura players.
