Hightower Leads City Section Girls : Reseda Guard Overcomes Back Injury to Excel in All-Star Game

Cheryl Hightower showed up at Cal State Northridge on Friday night figuring she would sit back and watch some of the best girls’ high school basketball players in the Valley area.

Several hours later it was Hightower’s rebound-layup and steal that gave the City Section a 71-67 victory over the Southern Section in the second San Fernando Valley All-Star high school basketball game.

“I had muscle spasms in my back,” Hightower said with no trace of a grimace. “I wasn’t supposed to play.”

But Hightower, a 5-foot-7 guard from Reseda High, decided just before game time to go ahead and give it a try.

“I just decided to forget all about it,” she said.

Hightower, who said she experienced no discomfort during the game, scored just nine points, but it was her rebound of Ericka Miller’s miss and the subsequent layup that gave the City Section a 69-67 lead with one minute left.

She then stole the inbounds pass and scored 20 seconds later for the game’s final points.

“I just wanted to get inside,” Hightower said of her crucial rebound.

The City Section squad trailed by as many as 13 points in the second quarter, when turnovers disrupted its offensive flow.

Behind, 39-27, at halftime, the City Section forged its first lead since early in the first quarter, at 59-58, with seven minutes left.

After several lead changes, Hightower stepped forward, scoring six of her points in the final quarter.

“We had to play as a team and not as individuals,” Hightower said. “In the second half, all we were doing was running. We had to get them tired.”

The Southern Section, which was led by Keira Irwin’s 13 points and Andrea Hoffman’s 10, scored only 28 points after halftime.

Irwin is a point guard from Simi Valley; Hoffman a forward from Alemany.

In the first half, the Southern Section forced 15 turnovers and made nine of its 12 first-quarter field-goal attempts.

Although it shot only six of 21 in the second quarter, the Southern Section maintained its lead as City Section players converted only eight of 33 first-half field-goal attempts.

The City Section, however, made 16 of 29 shots in the second half, and the Southern Section missed 26 of its last 35 shots.

Kennedy’s Dawn Coleman, a forward, led City Section scorers with 17 points.

Miller, from Chatsworth, and Jennifer Marzahl, a guard-forward from Reseda, each added 13 points.