FRESNO – It feels like the Immanuel Eagles are just pecking their way up every division as they establish a basketball legacy that has become second to none. For the Eagles, it doesn’t matter what division they’re seeded in – they’re going to win.
Led by sophomore sensation Kiera Thomas, who scored 13 of her game-high 26 points in the third quarter, the top-seeded Eagles flew to a dominant 49-28 victory against the #2 seed Generals in the Central Section D III Girls Basketball Championships on Feb. 28. Immanuel’s victory at Selland Arena resonated through the rafters as this win validated another season of excellence.
For the Eagles, this victory now marks a trifecta of titles that’s never been taken for granted. With previous Section titles in Division’s 5, 4 and now 3, Immanuel continues to perform consistently at the end of every season under LeBeau.
“I don’t take this for granted by any stretch of the imagination – so one isn’t more special than the other,” said Immanuel head coach Loren LeBeau. “We knew that Shafter was going to come in with a small-town toughness today, especially after the first game.”
Some of that Shafter toughness definitely rubbed Immanuel the wrong way for most of the first half. The Generals clogged several of the Eagles’ shooting lanes, forcing some bad looks at the basket. And with neither team controlling the tempo in transition, the Eagles’ 24-18 lead heading into the half seemed like a big win for them.
“Well, you try to go inside out, but everything is fluid, everything is a read,” said LeBeau. “You don’t say, ‘okay, we’re going to come in and do this,’ because they change things up – they’re prepared, so it’s never how you draw it up.”
In the third quarter, Thomas finally found her groove — and when she started to score, Shafter became grounded for good. Whether she drained the open threes from beyond the arc or penetrated inside the lanes, Thomas’s surge fueled the Eagles’ drive.
“It feels pretty good – we work hard for it,” said Thomas. “We earned it, definitely.”
“It just so happened that Kiera went off in the third quarter,” said LeBeau. “A girl like Kiera Thomas makes coaches look really good, and she made me look really good tonight.”
A third consecutive section title in a different division puts Immanuel (27-4) in the upper echelon of elite girls’ basketball programs in the Central Section. And while the Eagles proved yet again that they can hang with any team they play, the attraction of running it back in a different division next season is too enticing not to think about.
“You know, those things are out of our control,” said LeBeau. “So, we’ll let the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) determine which level we go to. But yeah, the standard is the standard, and we just continue to try and get better.”
