DIVISION IV GIRLS’ PLAYOFFS : Coronado Can’t Halt Lincoln’s Trek to Regionals

Coronado basketball players knew all about Lincoln’s DaSheila Dixon and Shondell Robinson. They were aware, too, that Lincoln had advanced to Friday’s San Diego Section Division IV girls’ championship at Golden Hall with a 69-point semifinal victory.

The Islanders came prepared. They played well, too.

Only well wasn’t nearly enough.

Behind Dixon and Robinson, Lincoln routed Coronado, 63-34, to win the first girls’ title in school history.

The top-seeded Hornets (19-2), ranked eighth in the state, will play host to a Southern California Regional game Tuesday in the first round. Coronado (18-8), which received an at-large berth, will play on the road. Pairing and times have yet to be determined.

At opposite ends of the normal size and age spectrums, Dixon, a 6-3 senior center, and Robinson, a 5-4 freshman point guard, were similarly effective for the Hornets. Dixon had 25 points and 14 rebounds, Robinson 21 and 10.

Michelle Stevens managed 13 points for Coronado. No one else had more than six.

The telling statistics of the game were rebounding and turnovers; Lincoln had a 40-22 rebounding edge and committed only 11 turnovers to Coronado’s 30. The score was 30-15 at halftime and 49-24 after three quarters.

In the end, it became the third most lopsided score in any girls’ championship game.

Can Lincoln win the state title?

“I don’t set state as a goal,” said Lincoln Coach Dorothy Robinson, who is not related to Shondell. “I set each game as a goal.”

“They’re as good as any Division IV team we’ve ever had around here,” said Coronado Coach Bill Cass, who remained upbeat and cordial despite the loss.

“They are very, very athletic. We tried to execute. We did some things correctly. But we had trouble scoring points. They were just too big and jumped too well.

“We were trying to keep them under 50 points. That was our goal. We tried to run down the 30-second clock as best we could each time down the floor, but they were too quick for us to do even that.”

It could have been worse, too. Robinson said her team was sluggish.

“They were sluggish in the first half because of the adversity,” Robinson said.

The adversity was a reference to recent accusations that Robinson was running up scores in the playoffs by keeping her starters in and continuing a full-court trapping defense until the final minutes. Lincoln, the highest scoring team in the county averaging 74 points, did so in its 104-35 victory over Imperial in the semifinals.

Said Robinson, “We’re going to give it 100%. That’s all I’m going to say.”