Peninsula Girls Cruise to Victory Over Alhambra

Any doubts of the effect of a lingering ankle injury to Mimi McKinney were dispelled in the opening minutes of Peninsula High’s 67-45 victory over Alhambra in a Southern Section Division I-AA first-round basketball playoff game at Peninsula.

The 5-foot-10 junior suffered a severe sprain in a loss to Christ the King of New York in the Panthers’ regular-season finale a week earlier. She did not practice during the week and was questionable for Saturday’s game.

The layoff, though, did little to slow Panthers’ leading scorer.

The guard finished with a team-high 19 points and eight steals. McKinney scored Peninsula’s first two baskets and had a block in the first one minute 19 seconds to help the Panthers open a 16-0 lead against the Almont League champion Moors.

“It looked like I wasn’t hurt, but I hurt a lot more than I let on,” McKinney said. “Now I’m about ready to go home and cry. I was going to play if I was needed. I said I was feeling OK but I was lying because I wanted to play. Nobody likes to sit on the bench.”

Jill Kennedy had 15 points, including three three-point baskets, and Joanna Whitley added 13 points for Peninsula (17-8), the defending State Division I champion.

“I wasn’t sure Mimi would play until she showed up today in uniform,” said Kennedy, who also had five assists. “I knew if she wasn’t back we’d have to play a lot harder to make up for her, but it did take a lot of weight off my shoulders.”

Peninsula, which has won seven of eight games after a 2-7 start, will play top-seeded Lynwood (23-0) in a quarterfinal game Saturday. Last season, Peninsula defeated Lynwood twice in the Southern Section and Southern California Regionals on its way to the state championship.

It’s a game that should give Peninsula more of a challenge than Alhambra (20-5).

Peninsula opened a 22-3 lead after the first quarter and held the Moors without a field goal through the first two minutes of the second quarter en route to a 33-12 halftime lead.

Kennedy and Whitley combined for nine points during a 14-2 run midway through the second half. Peninsula had a 57-25 lead after a three-point basket by McKinney to start the fourth quarter.

“It was one of those things where you don’t want to play her too much and have her reinjure herself,” Peninsula Coach Wendell Yoshida said. “We probably could have pulled it out without McKinney, but early the game I didn’t know. I think she needed to be out there for her own confidence.”

The Panthers quickly extinguished any of Alhambra’s hopes for an upset.

Only three Alhambra players scored and the Moors did not get on the scoreboard until Tammy Wong made two free throws with 1:32 left in the first quarter.

Tamara Maldonado finished with a game-high 29 points for Alhambra, making five three-point baskets. The 5-4 senior guard scored 17 of her team’s first 22 points.