City Girls’ Playoffs : Kennedy Edges Crenshaw With Free Throws

Kennedy High’s 60-53 overtime win over Crenshaw in the City 4-A girls’ semifinals at the Sports Arena Friday night was about as artistic as graffiti scrawled on a billboard.

But it got the message across.

The message is this: No matter how poorly Kennedy might play, it will probably still win a City championship.

Kennedy made only 17 of 62 field-goal attempts in advancing to next Friday’s championship game against Washington. That was the major reason Crenshaw was able to take the top-ranked Golden Cougars into overtime.

“I’ve never seen a team of mine miss wide-open layups like that,” Kennedy Coach Craig Raub said.

Even Stacy Parson, Kennedy’s All-City guard committed more than her share of blunders.

Parson had five points and was 0-for-9 in field goal attempts during the first half. She finished with a team-high 20 points, but 14 came on free throws.

Kennedy outscored Crenshaw, 26 to 9 at the free throw line.

The Golden Cougars trailed by as many as 11 points during the first quarter, but managed to rebound from an eight-point first-quarter deficit to trail 22-20 at the half.

The game was tied at 26 with 5:10 left in the third quarter, but Yolanda Kelley, Crenshaw’s top player, was called for her fourth foul and had to sit out the rest of the period.

Kennedy scored the next eight points and led by as many as nine just before the end of the quarter.

“She had to be a big loss for them,” Parson said. “She was hitting everything she put up there--and not because she wasn’t being guarded closely.”