Girls’ basketball: Windham’s fifth provides Los Osos windfall

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After a strong start to the season and then a seemingly downward spiral after that, Norco was the ninth-seeded team in the Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs. Yet the Cougars reached the semifinals Tuesday with a chance of reaching the finals for the second time since Times Player of the Year Erika Arriaran graduated in 2005.

Instead, Norco went down about the same time Cierra Windham did. The 6-foot-2 forward scored 16 points but fouled out with the score tied at 49-49 and more than three minutes left in the game against Los Osos.

And that’s all it took.

Sixth-seeded Los Osos scored again, and Norco didn’t, to advance to the section finals this weekend at the the Pyramid in Long Beach with a 52-49 victory. You can read more details about it in the Press-Enterprise, but it sounds like 6-foot-4 junior Cierra Warren had a great game for Los Osos with 13 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

Los Osos, the second-place team from the Baseline League, will face defending champion A.B. Miller, which defeated Baseline League champion Etiwanda, 70-56, for the second year in a row in the other semifinal. You can read about that in The Sun.

It’s a great victory for Los Osos (25-5), and it was a good run by Norco (22-8), too. Both teams should be proud.

-- Martin Henderson