St. Bernard Girls Win Easily, 51-22 : Division IV: Joi Turner scores 15 points and the Vikings’ defense does the rest in win over Valley Christian.

St. Bernard Coach Lori Pawinski acknowledged she was expecting a more competitive game in the Southern Regional Division IV final Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

But Pawinski wasn’t complaining after her girls’ team defeated Valley Christian, 51-22.

The victory gave the Vikings (29-4) a trip to the state final on Friday in Oakland. They will play Grass Valley Bear River.

“This is the first time that any team in any sport has made it to the state championship at St. Bernard and we’re pretty excited about it,” Pawinski said.

With St. Bernard controlling the game’s tempo with its pressure defense, Valley Christian committed two more turnovers than it scored points.

“I thought it would be a lot closer than it was, but our kids just played good defense,” Pawinski said. “We knew (Valley Christian) wouldn’t be ready for it and with the league we play in we see that all of the time.”

Once Valley Christian (28-3) broke St. Bernard’s press, the Crusaders didn’t help their cause by making only 17.7% of their shots on eight-for-45 shooting.

“Going into the game, we worked on some things and I felt that if we could do them we could slow them down a bit,” Valley Christian Coach Eleanor Dykstra said. “But we didn’t get that and we rushed up some shots we shouldn’t have taken.”

Behind the outside shooting of guard Joi Turner and the inside play of Olympia Scott and Marte Alexander, it didn’t take long for St. Bernard to assume control of the game.

The Vikings went ahead to stay, 5-2, two minutes into the game when forward Letisha Ducree made a basket and a free throw to complete a three-point play.

St. Bernard held a 16-6 lead after a quarter and stretched its advantage to 25-7 in the second quarter. It led, 28-14, at halftime.

The Vikings were led in the half by Turner, who scored 11 points en route to a game high of 15.

Things only got worse for Valley Christian in the second half as the Vikings increased their lead to 32 points.

Scott had 10 points and 11 rebounds, Alexander had nine points and guard Kelly Shimbukaro had a game-high eight assists. Valley Christian did not have a player score more than five points.

St. Bernard made 44.8% of its shots from the field and had only nine turnovers.

It was more than enough to convince Dykstra of St. Bernard’s superiority.

“I’ve been in this coaching business for 20 years and this is the best (Division IV) team I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I don’t think there are a lot of teams that can compete with them at this level.”

The win was the 23rd in a row for St. Bernard, which suffered its last defeat to Santa Ynez in the Santa Barbara tournament of Champions in December.