Woodbridge Ousts No. 1 La Habra : Division II-A: Warriors shut down top-seeded Highlanders, advance to girls’ basketball title game with a 47-44 victory.

Woodbridge High School’s Florencia Luppani is only a sophomore, so she probably doesn’t know that 5-foot-5 guards aren’t supposed to venture inside where 6-footers reign in girls’ basketball.

But Luppani constantly challenged La Habra’s front line of 5-foot-11 Leslie Ferguson, 6-1 Ana Kristich, and 6-5 Zrinka Kristich, making a variety of off-balance layups and passes to spearhead the Warriors’ 47-44 upset of the top-seeded La Habra at Irvine High School Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Southern Section Division II-A playoffs.

Woodbridge advances to the final against Bishop Montgomery at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Cal Poly Pomona. It is the second time in five years that Woodbridge has placed both boys’ and girls’ basketball teams in Southern Section finals; the Warriors also scored a basketball double in 1987.

“Here we are going to the big show,” Woodbridge Coach Russ Davis said, “and it’s only my first year as a head coach here. Tonight was obviously the biggest win in my career, and I’m really proud of these girls.”

Luppani had a game-high 14 points, plus three assists and eight rebounds, while center Deanna Harry had 13 points and 10 rebounds, before fouling out with 3:36 to play and Woodbridge’s lead at 42-41.

“Deanna was nowhere near the play when they called her for her fifth,” Davis said. “But I think it just got the girls . . . well let’s just say they got a little unhappy.”

Even with Harry gone, Woodbridge (24-5) continued to collapse with its 2-3 zone on La Habra’s post players, and the Highlanders settled for the outside shots.

“I don’t know why we didn’t get the ball to Zrinka more often tonight,” La Habra Coach John Koehler said. “She was open, but our offense was out of sync.”

After Luppani hit an 18-foot jumper to give Woodbridge a 46-42 lead with 2:19 to play, La Habra finally got the ball inside to Zrinka Kristich for a turnaround five-footer that cut the margin to 46-44 with 1:54 to play.

But the Highlanders (22-6) never scored again, missing three free throws in the final three minutes. La Habra made six of 14 foul shots for the game.

“We lost the game at the foul line,” Koehler said.

Even after Ferguson missed two free throws with 1:16 to play, the Highlanders had one last chance to tie after Woodbridge’s Nicole Schwartz missed the front end of a one-and-one with 20 seconds left.

But when Ferguson grabbed the rebound, La Habra rushed the ball upcourt while Koehler screamed for a timeout. The Highlanders didn’t see their coach, however, and guard Martina Hernandez took a shot near the top of the key with six seconds remaining.