Morningside Girls Defeat South, 50-39

In a girls’ basketball game two years ago, Morningside High center Lisa Leslie led her team past South Torrance by scoring 101 points in a half.

Saturday night in a Southern Section playoff game in front of 500 at Morningside, another Monarch center proved to be the Tartars’ undoing.

Junior Tina Thompson scored a game-high 19 points, pulled down nine rebounds, blocked eight shots and made five steals to lift Morningside to a 50-39 III-AA Division quarterfinal victory. The victory sends the Monarchs (16-10) into a Tuesday semifinal against El Dorado.

Morningside took control of the game early and led, 16-8, at the end of the first quarter. A 12-2 second-quarter spurt then helped the Monarchs forge a 32-18 halftime lead.

South Torrance (17-8) fell behind by as many as 16 points in the second half, but rallied to within nine with 3 minutes 33 seconds to play. But that was as close at the Tartars could get as Morningside secured the victory by making six of seven free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

“I’m a little disappointed in our effort,” South Torrance Coach Gil Ramirez said. “I thought the outcome could have been different. We played well, but not well enough to win.”

The Tartars worked the ball well enough to get open shots, but made only 14 of 48 from the field (29%), and 11 of 20 (55%) from the free-throw line.

Morningside was able to outrebound South, 37-28, and forced 21 turnovers.

“I thought, defensively, this was our best game overall,” Morningside Coach Ron Tatum said. “We’ve got a young group (the Monarchs start four juniors and a sophomore) and they’ve improved 100% from the beginning. I’m real pleased with their progress.”

Thompson was a force from the start. She scored 13 first-half points and grabbed six rebounds. When South Torrance slowed her offensively in the second half, the 6-foot-3 Thompson shifted her emphasis to defense and came up with six blocks and four steals.

Playmaking junior guard Kanesha Pruitt contributed nine points and four assists and sophomore Cherly Dickson finished with five points.

South Torrance center Jacqueline Brown led her team with 10 points and seven rebounds, forward Rachel Ooms had eight and Stephanie Pfau finished with six points and five rebounds.