Girls’ basketball: Normans upset Edison, keep Cinderella season alive
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Two hours after Beverly Hills’ 49-43 upset of second-seeded Edison in the second round of the Division II-AA girls’ basketball playoffs Wednesday night, Normans Coach John Braddell was already sound asleep. Assistant coach Charles Solomon, however, was wide awake. In fact, he was still on Coud 9 when he called in to report what he described as ‘the biggest win in the history of our program.’
‘John has a family and kids, so he had to get home -- but I’m out celebrating,’ said Solomon, a 1990 Beverly Hills alum who has spent the last seven years as an assistant at his alma mater. ‘We usually only have about 25 students at our games but tonight we had 90. Plus, Edison brought a lot of fans with them so it was pretty loud at the Swim Gym.’
Until last week the Normans hadn’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 1978. Now, this Cinderella team is three victories away from being fitted for glass slippers. Beverly Hills, which made the postseason as a wild-card entry, hosts Norco in the quarterfinals Saturday.
Spurred by their home crowd, the Normans looked like the higher-seeded team Wednesday, never trailing and building a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter. The Chargers used a 12-0 spurt to pull to within two points but Beverly Hills’ Taylor Craig hit a floater in the lane with 40 seconds left and Sophie Payson made two free throws with eight ticks remaining to seal the deal. Payson’s trio of three-pointers increased her season total to 71, placing her in the top 10 in the Southern Section.
Solomon can’t recall Beverly Hills ever advancing this far and if it did, he claims, it was more than 50 years ago. Clearly, this is uncharted territory for the Normans, but I wouldn’t count them out until the clock strikes midnight.
-- Steve Galluzzo