ONTARIO – For the first time in program history, the Schurr girls basketball team is a CIF Southern Section champion after defeating Orange 44-32 in the CIF-SS Division 8 championship game at the Toyota Arena on Friday.
The Spartans’ defense shined on the biggest stage, holding Orange to 15 points in the second half.
The victory capped a historic playoff run for Schurr, which held its five opponents in the CIF-SS playoffs to 126 combined points.
Schurr (16-14) will play in the CIF State Southern California Regional playoffs that begin next week. The regional pairings will be released Sunday.
Making the biggest start of her young career, sophomore Marley Diaz had a double-double to help push the Spartans over the top. Diaz finished with 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
“Honestly, I wanted to go on the court and give it everything I got,” Diaz said. “I didn’t want to leave the court without any regrets. I decided to push myself the whole game, be there for my team, and step up when I need to.”
Diaz wasn’t the only sophomore to make a difference for Schurr. Valerie Sepulveda had a game-high 14 points and three assists for the Spartans.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “This is the first CIF banner for girls basketball going up. It’s just a lot of emotions coming in after the game. It’s just crazy to me. A lot of my teachers have played basketball at Schurr and I see them everyday and they always like talking about it. They’re out there in the stands today.”
This is the second year in a row that a team from the Almont League has won a CIF-SS title. Mark Keppel won Division 3AA in 2025.
The youth of the Spartans’ starting lineup showed early. Schurr had 10 of their 16 turnovers in the first half, but it didn’t seem to phase the youngsters’ confidence.
Playing teams like Keppel, Bonita and Wilson during the regular season helped Schurr learn how to deal with adversity.
“We played competitive teams…it was for a purpose,” Schurr coach Juan Covarrubias said. “Because we knew at some point, if we find ourselves in this position, we would have to face adversity. It’s in those early moments in preseason or even in league against Keppel, we would have to fight adversity. It’s no different today.”
While it didn’t have much success on the offensive end in the first half, Schurr caused havoc on defense. The Spartans forced 13 first-half turnovers and held Orange to just five points in the second quarter.
The start of the second half brought more adversity for the Spartans.
Orange blitzed the Spartans to begin the third quarter. Eventually, the Panthers took a four-point lead, their largest lead of the game.
But Schurr managed to put together a 7-3 run to end the third quarter.
After holding a slim two-point lead going into the fourth quarter, Schurr’s offense finally kicked into overdrive. They came out firing and outscored Orange 15-5 in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
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