PREP BASKETBALL : City Girls 4-A : Locke Beats Kennedy for Third Straight Championship

Doreatha Conwell may be gone, but the winning continues at Locke High School.

The Saints, led by Denise Beck’s 16 points, defeated Kennedy, 47-38, Friday at the Sports Arena to capture their third consecutive City 4-A girls basketball title.

Without Conwell, the two-time City player of the year, Locke (22-2) is a more balanced ball club. That much was evident against a Kennedy team that finished the season at 21-5, two of its losses coming to Locke.

The Saints’ leading scorer, Nancy Clayton, scored just six points, making 3 of 13 shots.

But Beck, a 5-9 senior forward, made up for Clayton’s off-night.

She made 7 of 19 shots and also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Her basket with a half-minute left finished a 5-0 Locke run after the Golden Cougars had closed the gap to 40-38 with 2:15 remaining.

“This is great,” said Beck, who was voted the tournament’s outstanding player along with Shameil Coleman of Fairfax. “I’ve been here three times, and we’ve won the City every time.

“I’ve never won a state championship and I’d like to get one before I leave.”

Had Kennedy been able to get its offense in gear, it might be playing in the Southern California regional tournament next week.

The Golden Cougars, who lost to Locke in the finals for the third time in five years, turned the ball over 29 times.

Kennedy also shot just 35% (18 of 51) from the field. Stacy Parson, Kennedy’s leading scorer, scored just six points, making 3 of 13 shots.

“I just never got warmed up,” Parson, a junior, said. “Maybe I was nervous. It’s disappointing because the team worked so hard.”

Kennedy played well on defense, holding Locke to 31% shooting (20 of 64), but the Cougars never got on track offensively.

“I kept waiting for us to make a run,” Kennedy Coach Craig Raub said. “We’ve always had one, even in the games we lost. But we didn’t have one this time.

“If we had shot this way in other games, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Diane DeCree, the Cougars’ sophomore center, did her best to keep Kennedy close. DeCree made 8 of 14 shots and scored 16 points. She also had a game-high 13 rebounds.

Pam Kirkwood added 10 points for Locke, while Toni Brown had nine.

Brown made 3 of 4 free-throw attempts in the final minute. As a team, Locke made 7 of 12 attempts. Kennedy tried just four free throws, making two.

“Nancy was defensed well, but the others did the job,” Locke Coach Art Webb said.

The Saints’ victory gave them five City titles in the last eight seasons.