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FULLERTON — Troy’s resurgence as a girls basketball contender under coach Kevin Kiernan encountered a challenging checkpoint Saturday.
The Warriors played host to postseason regular and prolific 3-point shooting Brentwood in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs.
Troy proved that it’s growing quickly, and together, in Kiernan’s second tenure at the school.
Princeton commit Mei-Ling Perry scored 19 points with nine rebounds and contributed to a defense that held Brentwood to a season-low two 3-pointers as the Warriors collected a 61-48 victory.
Riley Almendarez and freshman Aarna Nagakar combined for 15 points off the bench as Troy (22-8) knocked off No. 4 seeded Brentwood (23-7), the Division 1 runner-up last season and Division 1 champion in ’24.
Brentwood junior Kelsey Sugar scored a game-high 20 points.
Kiernan, 66, hoisted his hands above his head after the final buzzer as Troy advanced to the quarterfinals Wednesday against visiting Valencia of Valencia, which beat Mira Costa 81-56 in the second round.
Last season, Troy finished 12-17.
“It’s the growth we’ve made,” said Kiernan, who played five transfers and two freshmen. “I told them in (the locker room), teams that struggle find ways to lose. Teams that are trying to become great, find ways to win. In the last three weeks, we’ve been finding ways to win.”
“We’re playing really hard,” the coach added. “In the beginning of the season, we would struggle offensively and it would just affect our defense and we would not play great defense and we’d end up losing by 15 or 20. We’re not doing that any more. We’re a lot tougher.”
“I just see the growth in them not just as basketball players but as people.”
Troy made 10 of 15 shots from the floor to lead 25-12 after the first quarter.
Freshman Rilynn Robinson scored all 10 of her points in the period that Kiernan’s daughter Kaidyn capped with a baseline jumper at the buzzer.
Nagakar sank a 3-pointer early in the second period that opened Troy’s largest lead at 32-14.
Brentwood trimmed its deficit to 38-28 at intermission and 43-35 with 3:57 left in the third period.
But Troy showed its resolve by answering with a 10-3 run to regain control.
Lexi Joko capped the surge with a 3-pointer after the Warriors rotated the ball from Almendarez (10 points) in the post, Nagakar in the corner and finally to Joko.
“That’s a mark of a mature team,” Kiernan said of the surge.
Troy sealed the victory on defense. Brentwood entered averaging 11 3-pointers per game but were held to 2 for 25 shooting from beyond the arc.
Brentwood missed all eight its 3-pointers in the fourth.
Eagles coach Charles Solomon credited Troy’s full-court press and decision to not play help defense in the half court.
“They weren’t going to help (on defense) and allow us to hit 3s … and that was the difference,” he said. “You can have transfers all you want but you got to get them to play. (Kiernan) gets them to play hard and buy in and play as a team. They play as a team, and play unselfish and they buy into his defensive philosophy. … They play Kiernan basketball.”
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