5-AA Girls : Leslie Leads Top-Seeded Morningside Past Fountain Valley

Lisa Leslie scored 36 points and grabbed 18 rebounds to lead top-seeded Morningside High School to a 73-56 victory over Fountain Valley in a Southern Section 5-AA semifinal girls’ basketball game Saturday at Edison High School.

Leslie, a 6-foot-5 junior center, scored eight of her points in the second quarter as Morningside (27-1) overcame a 15-12 Fountain Valley lead. Morningside, ranked third in the nation by USA Today, outscored the Barons, 23-6, in the second quarter to take a 35-21 halftime lead.

The Monarchs, who scored 14 unanswered points in the first 4 minutes 42 seconds of the period, held Fountain Valley (21-9) to two free throws each by Stacey Hisaka, Amy Brand and Julie Workman in the quarter.

Leslie, who also had four blocks in the game, finished the first half with 15 points and eight rebounds.

“I was real pleased with the way we played in the first quarter,” said Fountain Valley Coach Carol Strausburg, whose team led by as many as five points three times.

“They came out in a zone defense, and we shot very well against them. Then they came out of that defense in the second quarter, and we were very intimidated by their pressure. I wish we could have handled their defense a little better in the second quarter.”

Said Morningside Coach Frank Scott, whose team will play Fontana in the finals on Friday: “We tested them with a 2-3 zone to see what they could do. Then we went into a 1-2-2 defense in the second quarter, and that worked very well for us.”

Leslie added 12 more points in the third quarter as the Monarchs outscored the Barons, 23-17, to take a 58-38 lead.

Morningside’s Jo Jo Witherspoon had 13 points, and 6-3 freshman forward Janet Davis scored six of her 10 points in the second quarter.

Hisaka and Kami Bigler had 17 points each to lead Fountain Valley, and Julie Workman added 10.