Morningside Dominates Middle, Tops Reseda, 70-31

For the first few minutes of the girls’ basketball game between Reseda and Morningside on Tuesday night, Reseda led.

And in the fourth quarter, the Regents outscored Morningside, the No. 1 team in the state.

It was just the 22 minutes in between that gave Reseda problems of enormous proportions. The Monarchs outscored Reseda by 42 points during that span on their way to a 70-31 Division I victory over Reseda in a first-round game of the Southern California regional playoffs in the state championships at Morningside.

“It was just a tuneup,” Morningside Coach Frank Scott said.

The Monarch machinery seems to be working fine. Morningside (31-1) fell behind, 4-2, in the first 1:35, but outscored Reseda, 25-4, to end the quarter and any belief that the game might be close.

“They have balance, there’s not too many weaknesses,” Reseda Coach Andrea Francola said. “We can run, that was our advantage, but so can they. They could probably beat a lot of men’s teams.”

Morningside has the front line to be competitive with a few. The Monarchs start 6-5 sophomore center Lisa Leslie and 6-1 senior forward Shaundra Greene, who combined for 45 points, 15 rebounds and 9 blocks.

“With their height advantage, there was nothing we could do,” Francola said.

After Reseda’s early lead, Morningside, the Southern Section 4-A Division champion, had only two turnovers the rest of the quarter while taking advantage of numerous Reseda mistakes.

With the score tied, 4-4, Morningside scored 15 consecutive points, including 13 on the fast break. Carla Gladden scored 9 of her 13 points on first-quarter layups after fast breaks.

“That’s been the trademark of my teams here, fast breaks and transitions,” said Scott, who has coached Morningside for eight years. “This one’s not too bad.”

Reseda, the two-time City Section 3-A Division champion, would be happy to vouch for it. Gladden stole the ball and scored on a layup while being fouled to give the Monarchs a 7-4 lead. Leslie grabbed a missed Reseda shot and passed to Greene, who scored to put Morningside ahead, 9-4.

Another steal and layup, this time by JoJo Witherspoon, gave the Monarchs a seven-point lead. A Reseda timeout did nothing to slow things down as Gladden and Greene each scored another fast break layup.

Behind, 27-8, at the end of the first quarter, the Regents scored only 4 points in the second quarter and trailed, 47-12, at halftime.

“I’m not disappointed,” Francola said. “How can we not remember the Sports Arena and two City championships. I’m not ashamed at the least.”

Sharlene Cirrito and Aggie Garcia led Reseda (22-2) with 6 points each. Cirrito also had 9 rebounds.