Carson sophomore Jasmine Barrnett leaps after her basket on a...
(Sean Hiller, Staff Photographer)
With a chance at its first true L.A. City Section title, the Carson girls
basketball team went on the offensive.
One by one, Carson started picking off a shorthanded Narbonne squad.
Carson knew that Narbonne had suspended three players for the game -
including star forward Atoe Jackson - and the Colts showed no mercy.
First Narbonne stars Tori Breshers and Tailer Butler fouled out in
regulation. Then Jamasha Hudson, Kim Pickett and Nailah Long followed suit
in overtime.
Carson eventually wore down the Gauchos for a 53-47 victory in the
Division I final Saturday night at Galen Center.
"We knew who was in foul trouble, and we took it to them," said point
guard Chante Miles, who led Carson with 14 points, 10 rebounds, two assists
and two steals. "This was about heart. This is so big, this is about legacy.
I can't even talk clearly, it's so big."
The excitement almost got to be too much for Carson coach Marcel Sanders,
who had to be treated by paramedics for anxiety and shortness of breath at
the end of regulation. He missed the entire overtime period.
"The girls were trying to kill me with the way they were playing,"
Sanders said. "Seriously though, I was just overwhelmed by the moment at the
end. But I'll be all right. They'll play better at state."
Carson (22-8) nearly cost itself a shot at the title by making only 15 of
44 free throws for a percentage of 34.1 from the line.
Annie Currie had nine points and 11 rebounds, and Tiffany Moorehead had
seven rebounds and two blocks for Carson.
But even Carson star Janitah Iamaleava, who managed 13
points, 10 rebounds, two assists and three steals, fouled out with 1:36 left
in regulation.
Luckily Carson found its killer instinct.
"We just kept attacking," Iamaleava said. "I'm feeling
great. I'm happy - it was our time."
In the midst of Carson's struggles, a hero emerged.
Sophomore Jasmine Barrnett came off the bench and made the
biggest baskets of the game for the Colts.
Barrnett scored on a breakaway with 19.5 seconds left in
regulation to tie it at 42-42, then came up with a steal and a breakaway
with 13 seconds left for a 44-42 lead.
Narbonne tied it on single free throws by Pickett and
Tashawn McGhee to force overtime, but Barrnett scored the backbreaker in
overtime to give Carson a 48-44 lead with 1:25 left, essentially sealing the
game.
"There were nerves, and plenty of butterflies," said
Barrnett, a sophomore who scored 11 points. "But when you know you have it,
it just all leaves.
"All I was thinking was win, win, win, win, win. That's
all we wanted to do."
When Narbonne coach Victoria Sanders made the decision to suspend
Jackson, Tori Paschal and Jamesha Chapman for a violation of team and school
rules, she had no idea she would lose all five of her starters to fouls.
"That just didn't make any sense," Victoria Sanders said.
Sanders boasts about her team's depth, but she was forced to go much
deeper into her bench than she ever imagined. Narbonne (22-10) made just one
field goal in overtime and scored just three overtime points.
"We had the young ones out there, and they were terrified," Victoria
Sanders said. "It is what it is. What can you do but move on.
"But I definitely won't say the better team won tonight."
Breshers led Narbonne with 13 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three
steals. Hudson added eight points. Butler had seven points, two assists and
four steals. Long and McGhee each scored seven points.
"We should've done better," a sullen Breshers said. "Me and Tai, we
shouldn't have been in foul trouble. Every time one of our starters fouled
out, it was heartbreaking.
"We're a team that's been through a lot. If we had all our players, we
would've done better."
It was a stilting game from the outset.
The all-female referee crew called five fouls in the first 92 seconds,
setting the pace for a slow, frustrating game.
The teams combined for 58 fouls and 74 free throws.
"We played awful," Marcel Sanders said. "Maybe it was the big stage, the
anxiety of a big game, but give Narbonne a lot of credit. With no Atoe, they
played us so tough. Luckily we brought it together at the end."
February 22, 2010
April Phillips accepted into WBCA Coaching
Program.
WBCA’s So You Want To
Be A Coach Class of 2010 Announced
ATLANTA
-The Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) is proud to host the eighth annual WBCA’s
So You Want To Be A
Coach program. This two-and-a-half day
workshop will be held April 2-4 in conjunction with the WBCA National Convention
in San
Antonio, Texas. The 2010 class marks
the largest in the eight years of the program and is sponsored by the WBCA, the
NCAA
Diversity and Inclusion, NCAA Minority
Opportunities and Interests Committee, and the NCAA Committee on Women's
Athletics.
“The WBCA continues to remain committed to the
development of women’s basketball coaches and the So You Want To Be A Coach
program
has seen such a positive uptick over the last
eight years,” said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. “The WBCA will continue to make strides
in this
program and is dedicated to helping diversify
the women’s game.”
The So You Want To Be A Coach Program was
designed to increase the amount of women in the coaching profession, with an
emphasis on
female minorities by providing a workshop
based on educational and professional principles to help those interested in the
field.
BASKETBALL: Cotton,
Korver
and Campbell lead way to
semifinals, 63-37.
By David Felton, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/25/2009 11:12:22 PM PST
CERRITOS - Between the defensive
intensity of Valley Christian's Taylor Cotton and
the offensive prowess of
Kari Korver
and Andrea Campbell, Riverside Notre Dame High never
had a chance in Wednesday's
Valley Christian put the clamps on
Notre Dame's offense early in the game and advanced
to Saturday's semifinals with a convincing 63-37
victory at home. Cotton was outstanding under the
backboards with 16
rebounds - 10 in the first half -
while Korver scored 24 points and Campbell scored
19. Valley Christian (18-11) held leads of 11-3
after one quarter and 36-9 at halftime and cruised
to victory.
"I warned (the team) that if they
didn't bring the intensity on defense (Notre Dame)
could easily go on (an early) run," said first-year
Crusader coach Katie Hardeman. "We saw (that
intensity) from all five players
on the floor."
Cotton grabbed two rebounds in the
first quarter and added eight more in the second,
allowing Korver and Campbell to concentrate
on offense.
"It's a mindset of boxing out,"
Cotton said of her intensity under the basket. "We
do a lot of (rebounding) drills in practice.
Basically, it's what (Hardeman) instills in us - get
inside and the ball is ours."
The Crusaders allowed the first
basket of the game - a 3-pointer by Kally Panek with
6:23 left in the first - and then proceeded to score
the next 27 points. Campbell had six points in the
first quarter and added
nine in the second. Korver
had five in the first and pumped in 10 in the
second, including a deep 3-pointer with 5:13 left in
the half that put Valley ahead, 19-3.
In fact, Campbell and Korver were
the only Crusaders to score until Jamie Perez made a
3-pointer with 1:30 remaining in the half for a 33-9
advantage. Sophomore guard Jelissa Holder closed the
scoring for Valley
with a conventional three-point
play in the final minute of the half.
The only negative for the
Crusaders in the first half were the three fouls
Campbell picked up, including a pair in the final 15
seconds of the second quarter.
"That was my fault," said
Hardeman, who added she thought about taking
Campbell out after the second foul but didn't.
Campbell picked up her fourth foul
with 4:12 left in the third and fouled out with 3:08
left and the game out of reach.
Cotton, a junior forward, scored
her only two baskets of the game in the second half
and added six more rebounds, including three on the
offensive end. She also had a steal in the fourth.
"What we need from (Cotton) is
leadership and intensity," said Hardeman, whose team
has rebounded from a slow start to the season to
earn the No. 4 seed. "I attribute so much of our
success lately to her."
Valley Christian will play either
Santa Maria St. Joseph or Flintridge Prep in
Saturday's semifinals. Either way, the game starts
at 7:30 p.m. at Gahr High.
For Reshanda Gray, the basketball court is a zone of defense
The 6-3 Gray, who averages 20 points for Washington Prep, grew
up in a tough L.A.
neighborhood but got a break when the leader of an after-school
basketball program took an
interest in her. If not, she says, 'I'd probably be dead or in
jail.'
Washington's Reshanda Gray,
battles for the ball during a home game against
Narbonne on Feb. 5. Gray has become a standout
student-athlete at Washington despite growing up
in a violent neighborhood.
(Christina House /
For The Times /
February 5,
2010)
By Melissa Rohlin
February 9, 2010
| 1:21
p.m.
Reshanda Gray was
raised near 81st and Hoover streets, which is among the most
violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
When she was 12, she saw a man stabbed. When she was 13, a
man was shot in broad daylight just outside her family's
home.
A junior at Washington Prep, Gray says members of her family
are in gangs and she was headed down the same path until her
life took a turn a few years ago. That's when she met Tyrone
Dinneen, the coordinator of an after-school program.
Dinneen introduced Gray to basketball, and suddenly
gangbanging didn't have quite the same allure.
"If it weren't for basketball, I'd probably be dead or in
jail," Gray says.
Instead, she is well on her way to earning a basketball
scholarship.
Gray, who is 6 feet 3, averages 20 points and 15 rebounds
for a Washington Prep team that is 19-10 overall and leads
the Marine League with a record of 10-1 going into its final
game of the regular season Friday evening at Banning. She
also has a 3.4 grade-point average -- and a growing stack of
letters from colleges across the country.
"Basketball opened the gate of opportunity for me," Gray
says.
Dinneen pointed the way.
"I've worked with hundreds of kids," Dinneen says. "But
there was something about her personality, her being happy
all of the time through everything, that's made me take a
special interest in her."
Dinneen and his wife attend all of Gray's basketball games
and make sure she keeps her grades up. Gray spends at least
four nights a week at their home, and they treat her as if
she were their own.
"Some of my siblings didn't have the help I have now," Gray
says. "The only go-to person for them was gangs."
She has formed sisterly bonds with her teammates, many of
whom have endured similar pressures.
Their motto is "hold the rope."
"If one of us is falling off the cliff, we've got to hold
the rope and hold each other up," Gray says.
Gray is extremely grateful -- and she says he has an idea
how to show it: "I'm going to make something of myself."
Jazmyne Porter, Cal Sparks 2009, Wilson High,
Getting her chance to Shine at Long Beach State.
Women's basketball
Long Beach State does not have the deepest women's basketball
team around. Injuries, players booted off the team for disciplinary
reasons and one quitting has depleted the 49ers.
That's why freshman reserve guard
Jazmyne Porter, out of Wilson High, has seen her
playing time increase dramatically of late. On Thursday, in a nine-point loss at
Cal State Fullerton, Porter scored 12 points - her most thus far - and went
5-for-6 from the field. She also had two assists and three rebounds in her 17
minutes.
Long Beach coach Jody Wynn said a lot of freshmen believe they
can come right in and play at the college level because of what they did in high
school. But she said there is a transition all prep players must go through, and
she likes the way Porter is handling being thrown into the fire.
"Instead of putting her head down every day in practice and
saying, `Stop getting on me, I can never do anything right,' she's taken what
we're teaching her and she's working hard every day," said Wynn, whose team will
continue Big West Conference play today when it travels to Cal State Northridge
for a 4 p.m. game.
Porter made only one of five from the free-throw line. But she
showed her talent and tenacity when, with a defender all over her, she scored a
left-handed layup after a hard drive to the basket during a 9-0 run in the
second half.
Porter figures to be back in the mix against Northridge. The
Matadors were defeated by the 49ers, 65-49, on Jan. 28 at the Walter Pyramid.
Freshman Ashley Reese (Cal Sparks Silver) and Junior Kylie
Nakamine
Prep-JC
Roundup: Mira Costa girls
basketball welcomes `really big' additions
By Tony Ciniglio, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/03/2009 12:03:18 AM PDT
It seems the Mira Costa
girls basketball team discovered a windfall
Wednesday on its first day of school.
The Mustangs celebrated
the transfer of Mikaela Lockwood, the
stepdaughter of Lisa Leslie, and welcomed a
freshman in Ashley Reece who ESPN
(Cal Hi Sports) has called a "Candace
Parker Jr."
Not a bad day for the
two-time defending Bay League champions.
"This is big. Really big
for us," Mira Costa assistant coach Craig
Takahashi said.
Lockwood is a 6-foot-1
junior from Midlothian High near Dallas who
gives Mira Costa an inside presence to
replace Whitney Daniels (University of San
Francisco).
Reece, a 5-foot-7
forward, is ranked No.8 nationally in her
class. (ESPN Cal Hi
Sports)
They allow returning star
Jasmine Rutledge to play on the wing, making
her more of an offensive threat to help
offset the graduation of Amanda Johnson
(University of Washington). And they
complement point
guard Kylie Nakamine.
"These two girls
definitely help our rebounding, which was
something we lacked last season," Takahashi
said.
With Palos Verdes amassing
a hoard of young talent, this tandem will
provide a major boost for Mira Costa.
"PV was probably the
favorite before school started, but now I
think we're the favorites again," Takahashi
said.
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