Redemption: Strathmore High, Jazmine Soto (42 points) capture Valley title

Jazmine Soto is human after all.

She missed a free throw!

Plus, she had a 3-point attempt blocked!

Everything else, however, went her way as the Valley’s all-time basketball scorer poured in 42 points to lead No. 1-seeded Strathmore High School to the CIF Central Section Division V girls basketball championship with an entertaining 73-60 victory over Corcoran High on Thursday.

Yes, Soto has scored more points than noted Valley legends like Roscoe Poindexter, Jackie White, or the López twins (Brook and Robin).

With Thursday’s offensive firepower, Soto now has at least 3,171 points (her point totals in the two previous playoff games have been unreported).

So, which is more memorable? Being the top scorer in Valley history, or capturing the school’s first girls’ basketball championship?

Both go hand in hand, said Soto, who is headed to NCAA Division II in the fall to play for Holy Names University in Oakland.

“It means a lot because I know that I have my family and the community behind me, as well as my teammates,” said Soto. “I wouldn’t be in this position, and I wouldn’t have all the success without them. I love all these girls on and off the court.”

Unlike last year’s disastrous Division V title game against East Bakersfield, a 43-39 setback in which Soto scored 29 points but only had two other teammates pitch in with 5 points each, she got more support in Thursday’s game played before about 200 fans.

“You can’t play when you’re like this,” Soto said as she spread out the fingers on her left hand. “You have to play as a fist and be champions as a fist.”

Joseli Gutiérrez and Sherrie Chapa each had 8 points, while Alexis Ibarra chipped in 7 points in a game that wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter.

Although Strathmore, now 18-6, never gave up the lead, Corcoran kept within striking distance and tied the game several times thanks to feeding the ball inside to 6-foot junior Aaliyan Thompson, who scored 32 points.

Strathmore coach Richard Miranda called time with 4 minutes left in the game after Corcoran had whittled the deficit to 64-54.

“I never call time outs. I always put them in my pocket,” said Miranda, in his 18th season at Strathmore.

He could see in his players’ eyes “they were starting to tense.”

“I told them basically what I’ve been telling them since March of last year: Remember the tears. Don’t let this slip away,” Miranda said. “We’re only talking eight possessions away from doing what we’ve been talking about for two years.”

Soto and her teammates responded, going on a 9-4 run to ice the game.

Miranda said his money would be on a Strathmore victory, despite the close contest in the opening half.

“I said the better team will win in the fourth quarter,” he said.

Soto said both teams were “playing for something that is going to stick with us forever … and what your community is going to talk about.”

“We both wanted it. It just came down to we wanted it more,” said Soto. “And, in the fourth quarter we were the better team.”

Soto and Miranda said the East Bakersfield loss had a devastating effect on them, so much that they vowed to redeem themselves.

“Honestly, it hurt me and it broke me; and I felt like I needed that hurt just so I could be more motivated,” said Soto.

Because of COVID-19, Miranda wasn’t sure there would be a basketball season. Normally, the season ends in early March.

He scheduled games against schools that were playing basketball. That meant the team took its lumps against Clovis West (which won its ninth straight section title), Buchanan, Porterville, Hanford and Sanger. Those schools accounted for all of Strathmore’s losses.

“We have no business playing Clovis West, Buchanan, you know, but I think it prepared us in the long run to get beat up by a team like them,” said Miranda. “It just showed that, hey, we have to get better. And then we started just working and then we started making good runs.”

Thursday night, that preparation paid off.