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Girls’ basketball: Long Beach Poly clings to two-point halftime lead

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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SACRAMENTO--Using a balanced approach in which seven players have scored, Long Beach Poly has taken a 19-17 halftime lead over Monte Vista in the Division I championship game.

Monte Vista relies heavily on senior guard Niveen Rasheed, who has 10 points but picked up her third foul on a charging violation with two seconds left in the half. The Mustangs tried to protect their best player by taking her out of the game on defensive situations after she picked up her second foul only 50 seconds into the second quarter, and the move worked until just before halftime.

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Sheila Boykin has five points for the Jackrabbits, who shot 23.1% to Monte Vista’s 25%. Poly is trying to win its fourth consecutive state title.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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