Peninsula High Girls Overpower Palmdale

The Palmdale High girls’ basketball team had dreamed for two weeks of playing Peninsula, but when the Falcons finally challenged the nation’s top-ranked team Saturday night in a Southern Section I-AA Division quarterfinal game, it resembled a nightmare.

Peninsula won, 70-31.

The host Panthers (27-0) ran off 10 consecutive points in the first four minutes behind a relentless press and never looked back, building a 20-3 first-quarter lead and a 37-10 halftime advantage.

“We played about the best we have all year,” Peninsula Coach Wendall Yoshida said. “We took away the things that (Palmdale) wanted to do and we were able to do the things we wanted to do.”

Peninsula’s defense forced Palmdale into 19 turnovers and held the Falcons to 25% shooting from the field (13 of 51). Palmdale was four for 21 in the first half. In three playoff wins, Peninsula has won by a total of 113 points.

The Falcons (21-8) came into the game with a 15-game win streak and two impressive playoff victories. But the Panthers held All-American point guard Kim Schielke to nine points and limited high-scoring Latisha Beam to four.

Aimee Grimes, a 6-foot-2 senior center, was the only consistent offensive threat for the Falcons with 11 points. Grimes was neutralized when she picked up her third and fourth fouls in the first two minutes of the second half.

Senior center Jeffra Gausepohl led the Panthers with 26 points and Mimi McKinney added 16.

Palmdale Coach George Corisis said it was a case of the Falcons running into a more athletic team.

“Peninsula played great defense,” Corisis said. “They took Kim Schielke out of the game and we were not able to find anyone to pick up the slack.”