Louisville Loses to Morningside in Bell-Jeff Final

The seemingly interminable girls summer basketball season came to an end Wednesday night at Bell-Jeff High as Morningside defeated Louisville, 85-81, in the championship game of the Bell-Jeff Tournament.

“It’s been a long summer,” Louisville Coach Brian O’Hara said. “The girls are off until early November. I hope they enjoy the rest.”

The Royals may have entered the off-season a little more enjoyably had they beaten Morningside, which demonstrated that it would be a force to contend with next season in the Southern Section 4-A Division.

Three Monarchs scored more than 20 points each. Guards Carla Gladden and Tia Thomas combined for 49 points and center Shaunda Greene scored 25.

“I didn’t expect this game to be in the 80s,” O’Hara said. “We knew they couldn’t stop us, but I thought we would do a better job stopping them.”

Louisville was trailing, 43-39, at halftime before scoring six unanswered points to begin the second half.

“I told them at halftime, ‘This is a joke,’ ” O’Hara said. “We came back and played well, but we should have been able to win this game.”

Guard Lynn Flanagan was the leading scorer for Louisville with 23 points, and center Andrea Knapp scored 22 points, 15 in the second half to help keep the Royals in the game.

Morningside led, 19-17, at the end of the first quarter behind the play of Thomas and Gladden, who are expected to be one of the top guard combinations in the Southern Section next season.

Louisville stayed close behind the play of Flanagan and senior guard Maureen Gaffney, who scored 16 points.

“Gaffney just did a great job for us tonight,” O’Hara said. “This was probably the best game of her career. She was all over the court.”

Earlier, defending 4-A champion Lynwood defeated Alemany, 79-45, for third place.

Lynwood led, 41-25, at halftime behind the play of All-Southern Section guard Trise Jackson, who scored 10 of her game-high 26 points.

Alemany was handicapped by the early departure of All-San Fernando Valley League guard Jenny Beubis, who left the game early in the first quarter with a sprained ankle. Even with Beubis, however, the Indians were no match Wednesday night for Lynwood.

The Knights built their lead to 55-38 at the end of the third quarter and cruised to an easy win.

Jennifer Kroll was the leading scorer for Alemany with 20 points.