Girls’ basketball: If LB Poly dials long distance, you can phone it in

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There’s no guarantee that what happened Friday in the third quarter will ever happen again, but the fact that it did happen could be a sign of things to come.

Long Beach Poly, with an interior game like no other in the Southland, made a three-point basket. Then another. And then another. Three threes from three different players. Easily overlooked in a 13-point victory over Long Beach Millikan, except in the big picture.

With Jasmine Dixon’s six points to open the third quarter, Poly had extended its 29-22 halftime lead to 35-25. Poly, ranked No. 2 in the Southland by The Times, was just getting comfortable against the No. 1-ranked Rams.

Then Kelli Thompson made a three-pointer at the 4:06 mark. Brittany Wilson added another at 1:54, and Thaddesia Southall struck gold at 36 seconds. Poly took a 44-29 lead into the fourth quarter. Very comfortable.

Those were the only three-pointers of the game for the Jackrabbits.

On the season, Poly had shot only 18% from the arc, 28 of 153, so the sudden perimeter game came from out of the blue.

‘It opened it up, it was huge,’ Poly Coach Carl Buggs said. ‘We haven’t been shooting well from the outside. Hopefully, we can build on that. If we start hitting our outside shots, it’s going to open up a lot more inside.’

And if that happens, there’s no need to even play the state tournament.

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.ehow.com