Oak Park girls basketball program goes from 1-20 last season to CIF-SS champion

MANHATTAN BEACH — Change the culture? The revamped Oak Park High girls basketball team — guided by a new head coach fresh off winning a Division 1 title, a flashy freshman star-in-the-making point guard, and a sharpshooting junior transfer — have surged through the old ways like a tsunami.

All the way to the Eagles’ first CIF-SS championship in 22 years.

After finishing 1-20 a season ago, including 0-8 in the Coastal Canyon League, Oak Park is the queenpin in Division 5A.

Delaney White, the phenom freshman, piled up 26 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds, and junior Lindsay Gould tallied a game-high 27 points — including six 3-pointers — to lead the Eagles to a resounding 76-41 victory over top-seeded St. Monica Prep in the CIF-SS Division 5A title match at Mira Costa High on Saturday.

It's the Eagles' first Southern Section crown since 2001. It's also a brand-new day for the program, which starts two freshmen, two sophomores and one junior who transferred in from Westlake High.

"It feels amazing," said White, who finished 8 of 14 from the field. "We're such a close group. We play for each other. Our whole goal is to work hard in practice every day, and continue to get better. We won this championship as a team."

Gould, who played on Westlake's SoCal regional championship team as a freshman, said the Eagles indeed treated this season as a fresh start. Among their first acts under head coach Will Burr was to list their goals for the season.

"We said we wanted to win league. We wanted to win CIF and we wanted to win state," she said. "Basically, we wanted to show everyone that we weren't that team anymore. We're a different program."

Oak Park (20-11) demonstrated its toughness in a rugged nonleague schedule, then produced a signature win on Jan. 13 by ending Camarillo's 58-game winning streak in league, 56-47. Two weeks later, the Eagles defeated the Scorpions again, 54-52, to win the Coastal Canyon League championship and end Camarillo's 11-year league title streak.

"That was definitely big for our confidence," said Gould. "That showed us what we can do."

Oak Park's romp through postseason as the division's No. 2 seed has been nothing shy of astounding. There have been five victories by an average of 40 points, including the dismantling of the No. 1 seed.

The Eagles have shown no problem in keeping the pedal to the metal.

"Our goal is always to keep improving, game by game," said White. "There are always things we can work on. We can always get better."

Oak Park knocked out St. Monica Prep early, after dealing with a slight case of jitters.

"We've been studying that team on film, and then suddenly they're warming up on the court with us," Gould said with a smile. "It's like this is real. We're about to really play them."

Oak Park zipped out to an 11-0 lead, and 21-8 after one quarter. The advantage was 41-18 at halftime. Game over.

The Eagles shot 45.5% from the field, at 25 of 55, while St. Monica Prep was limited to 27.3% (15 of 55). Oak Park dominated in rebounds, 51-23.

The Eagles were 9 of 18 from 3-point range, with Gould 6 of 12.

Ella Shmool notched eight points and Jaeiah Brown had seven.

Oak Park isn't done yet. The Eagles will play in the CIF-State SoCal Regionals, with brackets and seedings to be released Sunday. They could jump up in divisions to Division 4 or even Division 3.

"We'll prepare and be ready," said White. "We look forward to the challenge and we're glad we get to keep playing."

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oak Park girls basketball program goes from 1-20 to CIF-SS champion