3 Area Girls Named to Southern Section Basketball Team

Three players from the South Bay are among 11 named to the first All-Southern Section Girls Basketball team selected by the Amateur Athletic Foundation-First Interstate All-Southern California Board of Athletics.

The players are guard Mimi McKinney of Peninsula and forwards Olympia Scott of St. Bernard and Tina Thompson of Morningside. McKinney was also named to the All-Southern Section Division I first team and teammate Jill Kennedy made the second team.

The selection to the All-Southern Section team is the latest honor for McKinney. The 5-foot-9 junior had previously earned All-American honors from Street and Smith magazine, USA Today and Parade magazine.

McKinney averaged 20.3 points and nine rebounds. She made the Division III first team in 1991 and the Division I first team in 1992, when Peninsula finished 33-0 and won the state title.

Scott, a 6-3 junior, helped lead St. Bernard to its first Division IV state title by averaging 11.6 points. She was named Southern Section Division IV player of the year last week.

Thompson, a 6-2 senior who will play for USC next season, was the top player for a Morningside squad that won its fifth Southern Section division title in six seasons. The Monarchs won the Division III-AA championship before losing to Costa Mesa in the Division III Southern California regional final.

Perhaps the best inside player in the South Bay, Thompson finished among the area leaders in scoring at 18.8 and rebounding at 13.2.

Kennedy, a 5-6 senior guard who signed with Pepperdine in November, was her team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 10.1 points per game.