Kennedy Beats El Camino Real to the Punch : Girls’ basketball: Golden Cougars score first 14 points, post 52-37 victory behind Harris.

Kennedy High scored its usual first-quarter knockdown in Wednesday’s North Valley League girls’ basketball showdown with El Camino Real.

Certainly, scoring the first 14 points qualifies as a knockdown.

Only the fact that El Camino Real fought back gamely before falling, 52-37, kept the opening six minutes from qualifying as a knockout. The victory gave Kennedy (13-5, 7-0 in league play) at least a share of the league title.

Shaneya Harris led the Golden Cougars with 29 points, 11 rebounds, seven steals and five assists. But Kennedy could not put El Camino Real away until a 7-0 run midway through the fourth quarter made the score 44-26.

The Golden Cougars had been blitzing Northwest Valley Conference opponents by an average of 41 points a game with their strong combination of pressure defense and fast-break offense. That was before Conquistadores’ Coach Lori Chandler took most of the speed out of Kennedy’s run-and-gun with a deliberate attack.

“Our strategy was to keep the ball as long as we could,” Chandler said. “We didn’t want to look for a shot until there were 12 seconds left on the shot clock.”

Chandler’s game plan could have worked if Kennedy’s defense hadn’t sparked that 14-point run over the first six minutes. Harris had eight points during the spurt and finished with 21 in the first half.

“We always come out playing tough defense,” Harris said. “We come in with the attitude that we’re better than everyone else.”

Kennedy forced El Camino Real (8-5, 4-3) into 30 turnovers and made 24 steals, but most of the damage was done in the first quarter when the Conquistadores committed 18 turnovers.

“Our philosophy is that defense wins ballgames,” Kennedy Coach Donis Bailey said. “Our defense is what makes our offense go.”

Yolanda Robinson had 12 points and five steals for Kennedy and Monica Tidwell added 11 steals and six assists.

“We came out a little intimidated,” Chandler admitted. “You see the scores (Kennedy) has been running up on other teams and it is intimidating until you see you can play with them.”

Jessica Dinaberg sparked El Camino Real the rest of the way, finishing with 20 points. But it was too late for the Conquistadores, who are battling Granada Hills (5-2 in league play) for second place and a City Section playoff berth with three league games to play.