Palos Verdes Cagers Defeat Rowland, 59-47

Rowland High School’s bus broke down on the way to Rolling Hills High for its CIF 3-A girls basketball quarterfinal match-up with Palos Verdes.

That was its first derailment of the night.

The second came courtesy of 6-4 center Heather Burge, who helped Palos Verdes defeat Rowland, 59-47, on Saturday night.

The game got under way an hour late after the Raiders finally arrived. Burge was dominant inside, scoring 29 points. Her twin sister, Heidi, who missed Wednesday’s playoff game with chicken pox, added 18 for the Sea Kings.

Palos Verdes (23-7) will play El Toro (24-5), a 47-32 winner over Valenica, in the semifinals on Tuesday night. The site will be determined today by a coin flip.

The scoring by the Burge sisters almost wasn’t enough. The hot outside shooting of Rowland’s Julie Garcia (14 points) and Kim Dent (12 points) cut Palos Verdes’ lead to 26-20 late in the first half.

Garcia led a run in the third quarter that brought Rowland close again, but Palos Verdes freshman guard Kaaren Iverson buried an 18-foot jump shot at the buzzer to make it 44-33.

“That was a clutch shot,” said Palos Verdes Coach Wendell Yoshida, who earned a spot in the semifinals for the first time in his eight years as coach. “It took the wind out of their sails. Pressure doesn’t affect her (Iverson).”

Yoshida got fine play from sophomore guards Susan Wilhite and Katrina Stager, who each had four points, as did forward Anglesey Thomas.

Wilhite also did a good job of engineering the offense and getting the ball inside to the Burges.

“You know who is going to get the ball at crunch time,” said Yoshida. “They know what they have to do, especially defensively.”

Rowland finished with a 21-4 record.