Sonora of La Habra was expected to give Troy of Fullerton a great game on Wednesday night since both teams were ranked right next to each other with Troy at No. 8 and Sonora at No. 9 in this week’s Orange County Top 10 rankings.
The Raiders did exactly that and then some in beating the Warriors 39-30 in a Freeway League matchup. The loss was huge since Troy has dominated in its league for more than 20 years and it snapped a league win streak that had reached 219 games.
Lainie James led the winners with 11 points, but she averages more than 21 so Sonora needed others to step up and they did. According to the Orange County Register, Elizabeth Yoshitake made 6 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter and ended with 10 points. Luz Lizardo also chipped in with 10 points.
According to the Cal-Hi Sports state records, Troy’s league win streak surpassed the state record of 196 set in 2015 by St. Mary’s of Stockton with its second league win during the 2015-16 season. The Rams went to an independent schedule after the 2014-15 season and haven’t been adding to their league win streak record. They did have a forfeit loss to McNair of Stockton in the final league game of the 2013-14 season, but didn’t lose on the court so in the Cal-Hi Sports state records the streak didn’t end and if the Rams were ever to get back into playing league games again their streak would start to get longer. Troy’s league win streak essentially was just a couple of games behind St. Mary’s until the Rams went independent while the Warriors kept on winning league games.
Last year’s team at Troy rolled on in league with McDonald’s All-American Kianna Smith leading the way. The school’s league win streak began the season before Kevin Kiernan came on as its head coach and took the program to elite statewide status. It continued in recent seasons under head coach Roger Anderson after Kiernan left in 2007 to go over to Mater Dei of Santa Ana. One of the players that Kiernan coached at Troy during the long league win streak was current Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth head coach Alicia Komaki.
Troy’s last league loss was 51-47 to La Habra in January of 1996.
