SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PREP BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Girls’ Championships : Lynwood Has Score to Settle With Morningside

For what it’s worth, the Inglewood Morningside and Lynwood girls’ teams have played three times this season, with Lynwood slipping a victory in between defeats.

Considering how closely these teams have played one another, it should be Lynwood’s turn to win in tonight’s Division I Southern Regional high school basketball final at 6:15 in the Sports Arena.

Lynwood Coach Van Girard concurs.

“It’s our turn,” he said. “This is it. If we play hard and we play smart, we’ll do it.”

In December, Morningside beat Lynwood by seven points, winning the Artesia tournament. Then a week later, Lynwood beat Morningside by four points for the championship of the Lady Monarchs’ own tournament.

Last Friday, the Lady Knights lost to Morningside, 60-55, in the Southern Section 4-A Division championship game.

“We led, we played them tough for three quarters,” Girard said. “But then we let it slip away in the last four minutes. We fouled out the girl we wanted to, and then we fell apart.”

That would be Lisa Leslie, Morningside’s 6-foot 5-inch sophomore center who scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds before fouling out near the end of the game.

But then Shaundra Greene took over. Greene, an All-Southern Section pick at forward last season, finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds and took control of the boards after Leslie was gone.

Morningside (31-1) has dominated both of its Southern Regional opponents. Tuesday, the Lady Monarchs routed City 3-A champion Reseda, 70-31. Thursday, they crushed Central Section champion Hanford, 76-45.

Leading Lynwood (30-4) is All-Southern Section guard Trise Jackson, a relentless defensive player. The Lady Knights’ top offensive player lately has been sophomore forward Linda Watson, who made all four of her three-point shots in the first half of a 66-57 win over City 4-A champion Westchester in Thursday’s semifinal.

The Division II Regional final at 2:45 p.m. at the Sports Arena matches Southern Section 3-A champion Palos Verdes (26-7) against San Diego Division II champion Escondido San Pasqual (28-2).

The Sea Kings, who easily beat 3-A runner-up Hacienda Heights Los Altos for the second time in less than a week Thursday night in the semifinals, are led by juniors Heather and Heidi Burge.

The 6-4 twins totaled 31 points--20 for Heather and 11 for Heidi--in the Sea Kings’ 62-48 win over Los Altos.

Neither the Southern Section nor the City enters teams in Division III, thus today’s 11:15 a.m. final at the Sports Arena matches two non-area teams, Ramona, the San Diego Section champion, and Lemoore, the Central Section champion.

Ramona (19-7) beat Bakersfield Highland, 54-38, to get to the final. Lemoore (21-8) jumped out to a 26-16 first-half lead en route to beating San Diego Lincoln, 54-37.

Semifinal upset winners, Oxnard Santa Clara and Chowchilla, square off in the Division IV final at 6:15 p.m at Cerritos College.

Santa Clara (23-7), which lost to Cerritos Valley Christian in the Southern Section 1-A final, beat previously undefeated Wasco of the Central section rather easily, 52-35, in Thursday night’s semifinal.

What makes this interesting is that Chowchilla (27-2), which lost to Wasco in the Central Section final, beat Valley Christian, 58-57, in the other semifinal.

Trona (22-4), the Southern Section Small Schools champion and No. 1-seeded team, plays Avenal (25-3), the Central Section champion, in the Division V final at Cerritos College at 2:45 p.m.