SOUTHERN SECTION GIRLS’ BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Valencia Holds Off Kennedy

After a horrendous second quarter, Valencia High School tightened its defense and held visiting Kennedy for the rest of the game, coming out of the second round of the Southern Section II-A playoffs with a 54-48 win.

Kennedy Coach Pat O’Hern said he warned his team at halftime that the Tigers would be gunning for them after being held to three points in the second quarter.

“I told them,” he said. “But Valencia’s defense was a lot tougher and we weren’t ready. They got a little run on us and we lost our composure. That’s basically the difference. You have to play two halves to win, and we only played one.”

The Fighting Irish (19-8) took a 20-15 lead in the first quarter, and did not allow Valencia to score until a minute remained in the half. Kennedy led at halftime, 28-18.

“They were really upset at the half,” Valencia Coach Nancy Amoraso said of her team. “I told them, ‘This could be our last half of basketball.’ We knew we could play 99% better than we did that first half.

“We really needed to start controlling the boards,” Amoraso said. “Otherwise, there was no way we were going to win the ball game. And we switched to a man-to-man (defense) in the second half, which helped control Valerie Ruiz and (Lynly) Matsumo.”

Ruiz, a senior guard who averages 25 points a game, came away with a game-high 21, but was held to nine in the second half. Matsumo, a forward, scored 11 in the first half, seven in the second, when Valencia used its height advantage.

The average height of the Valencia starters is 5 feet 6 inches; Kennedy’s is 5-3--the Fighting Irish won 20 games this season without a player over 5-7.

At the start of the third quarter, Valencia went on a 12-2 scoring run and tied it at 30-30 with 2:13 left. Twenty-eight seconds later, guard Cathryn Sweet hit a three-point shot from about five feet inside the midcourt stripe.