Peninsula’s Pressure Puts Squeeze on 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 as a reserve to help Peninsula defeat visiting Poway, 75-41, in the semifinals of the Southern California Girls’ Division I Regional playoffs.

Peninsula (31-0) will play Lynwood (28-2), a 58-56 winner over Thousand Oaks, at 7 p.m. Saturday in the regional final at the Sports Arena. The Lady Panthers defeated Lynwood, 54-44, last 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, entered the game in the third quarter and scored 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.”

Of course, by then Peninsula was in the process of extending a lead that did not stop growing until the final buzzer.

Comparing Poway’s first meeting with Peninsula to Thursday night’s game, Trousdale said, “They were better this time. They are just much, much more together as a team. They should go all the way. I know they will face a tough team on Saturday, but if they stay healthy, they will be tough to beat.”

Peninsula center Jeffra Gausepohl, a 6-foot-5 senior bound for Virginia, shook off the effects of the hyperextended knee to finish with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Forward Monique Morehouse, a 6-3 senior bound for Auburn, had nine points, seven rebounds and six steals for the Lady Panthers, and point guard Kristen Mulligan, who will also attend Auburn, contributed nine points, six assists and six steals.

Kristen Carlson, a 6-4 junior backup center, led Poway with 10 points.