Morningside Ends Alabama Team’s 39-Game Win Streak

Vigor High School of Pritchard, Ala., brought a 39-game winning streak and a huge reputation into its first-round game against Morningside in the “Best of the U.S.” girls basketball tournament in Shelbyville, Tenn.

But that was before Vigor met up with Lisa Leslie.

Leslie, Morningside’s 6-foot-5 center, almost single-handedly ended Vigor’s streak with 28 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in a 54-44 victory Wednesday before a crowd of 3,000 at Shelbyville High.

The win propels the Lady Monarchs (9-1) into the semifinals tonight against either Nelson County of Kentucky or Cannon County of Tennessee, which met late Wednesday. All the teams in the eight-team tournament were state champions or runners-up last season.

Morningside, the defending California Division I champion, led the entire way against Vigor, which didn’t impress Lady Monarch Coach Frank Scott.

“From what I’ve seen, the California teams are tougher than these teams,” he said. “We played terrible. We should have beaten (Vigor) by 20.”

Explaining his team’s sluggish play, Scott said: “Maybe it was jet lag or the big crowd. We didn’t play well in the second half.”

Leslie, already named Most Valuable Player at two tournaments, made 11 of 21 field goals and scored 11 points in the second quarter when Morningside’s lead bulged to 15.

“They couldn’t stop her,” Scott said.

Leslie was the only Lady Monarch in double figures. The team’s next highest scorer, guard Sherrell Young, had seven points.

Sophomore forward Janet Davis, who missed Morningside’s final two games in the Tournament of Champions in Santa Barbara last week with a sprained ankle, started but played sparingly. She finished with two points and five rebounds.

Vigor, the defending Alabama Class 6-A champion, fell to 13-1.