McKinney Lifts Peninsula to Easy Win Over Poway

With four seniors heading to Division I colleges, it’s easy to think of the Peninsula High girls’ basketball team as a once-in-a-lifetime squad.

But, as two underclassmen proved Thursday night, the Lady Panthers are not about to fall apart after the class of 1992 graduates.

Sophomore forward Mimi McKinney scored a game-high 23 points and junior guard Jill Kennedy played well in a reserve role to help Peninsula defeat visiting Poway, 75-41, in the semifinals of the Southern California Division I regionals.

Peninsula (31-0) will play Lynwood (28-2), a 58-56 winner over Thousand Oaks, at 7 Saturday night in the regional final at the Sports Arena. The Lady Panthers defeated Lynwood, 54-44, Saturday in the Southern Section Division I-AA title game.

Poway, the San Diego Section champion, finished at 27-4; two of its losses coming against Peninsula, the nation’s top-ranked team.

McKinney, Peninsula’s most physically gifted player, set the tone for the game in the first quarter by scoring nine points to help the Lady Panthers open a 21-8 lead. She finished with three three-point shots and made several athletic moves to the basket.

“Mimi came out smokin’,” said Peninsula Coach Wendell Yoshida, whose team can win state and mythical national titles with two more victories. “She did some great things in the first quarter.”

Kennedy, meanwhile, came off the bench in the third quarter to score nine consecutive points on three impressive layups and a three-point shot, helping Peninsula extend a 36-16 halftime lead to 56-25 with 1:33 left in the third quarter.

“Jill and Mimi are great athletes and great one-on-one players,” Yoshida said. “I think we’ll be OK next year.”

Poway Coach Jay Trousdale, whose team lost to Peninsula in December in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, was disappointed with his team’s poor start. The Titans had trouble breaking the full-court press and committed 12 turnovers in the first quarter.

“For the first 2 1/2 quarters we were way too nervous,” Trousdale said. “We tried to get the girls not to think about playing the No. 1-ranked team, but I think some of them had that in the back of their minds.”

Said Yoshida: “I think teams tend to come in here a little intimidated. (Poway) started to loosen up a little bit in the second half.”