San Diego Section 2-A Basketball : El Camino Routs Kearny, Gains Final

When the Kearny High School basketball team held practice Tuesday night, the players were shooting well.

“We shot the lights out,” said Bill Peterson, Kearny coach.

But on Wednesday night, the Komets seemed to have lost their touch. They hit only 33% from the field in a 70-48 loss to El Camino High in a San Diego Section 2-A semifinal at Mira Mesa.

El Camino (23-3), the defending 2-A champion, will face Oceanside again in the final at the Sports Arena Saturday night. Kearny finished at 19-7.

El Camino dominated the first period, scoring nine straight points to gain a 20-6 lead with three minutes remaining.

The second period was more of the same. El Camino increased its lead to 34-17 midway through the period. Lee Cobb, a 6-foot 6-inch center, scored 10 points in the half, all from under the basket.

Late in the third period, Kearny cut El Camino’s lead to 48-36 and gained momentum for the first time.

It didn’t last long, however, as El Camino’s Edmond Johnson sank a 30-footer at the buzzer.

“It woke us up,” said Ray Johnson, El Camino coach. “Up to that point, we were just trying to run the clock out.”

Edmond Johnson finished with 21 points and Cobb 20 for El Camino, which shot 60% from the field. Tim Garlin scored 12 points and Randy Robinson 11 to lead Kearny, which started three juniors.

Girls

La Jolla 46, Lincoln 44--Trailing 37-28 going into the fourth quarter, top-seeded La Jolla rallied for a girls’ 2-A semifinal victory at Serra High.

Nicole Anderson scored 25 points to lead La Jolla (17-5). But it was a free throw by Leslie Darling, her only point of the game, with 33 seconds remaining that clinched the victory for La Jolla.

La Jolla survived 29 turnovers to reach the final against San Pasqual at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Sports Arena.

With the score tied at 28-28 in the third quarter, Lincoln scored nine straight points to take a 37-28 lead at the end of the period.

La Jolla came back to outscore Lincoln, 11-2, tying the game at 39-39 after a layup and free throw by Anderson. Lincoln could not recover. La Jolla was held to five third-quarter points but came back to outscore Lincoln by 18-7 in the final quarter.

Fourth-seeded Lincoln (14-11) had 15 points each from Keiba Lewis and Keisha Thompson.